Former FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe’s revelation that President Donald Trump believed Russian dictator Vladimir Putin over his own advisers during an intelligence briefing is so damning that even former House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers is deeply concerned.
During a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, McCabe revealed that an FBI briefing with Trump went “off the rails” when Trump flatly ignored evidence presented to him and took Putin’s word instead.
According to NPR:
McCabe said the topic was supposed to be how Russian intelligence officers were using diplomatic compounds inside the U.S. to gather intelligence on American spy agencies. Those compounds were closed as part of the long diplomatic chill between the two countries.
“Instead the president kind of went off on a diatribe,” McCabe told NPR, explaining that Trump changed the subject to his belief that North Korea had not actually launched any missiles because Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that the U.S. intelligence assessment was wrong and that “it was all a hoax.”
“How do we impart wisdom and knowledge and the best of our intelligence assessments to someone who chooses to believe our adversaries over our intelligence professionals?” McCabe said.
Seriously. North Korea has been firing missiles for years, but because Putin told him otherwise, Trump automatically believed him over our own trained experts who have been watching North Korea over the decades. Trump has been getting duped by North Korea ever since as he prepares for a second summit with Kim Jong Un later this month.
On Monday, CNN spoke to Rogers, who expressed that he finds Trump’s trust of Putin over his own advisers “concerning.”
“That’s very, very concerning to me,” Rogers said. “These are his intelligence folks who are culling lots of points of collection, meaning human and electronic and digital, every form of intel. They take all of that information and then they come up with a policy or at least a proposal or at least an understanding of what’s going on in the world. The president needs to have faith and trust in that information. It’s the best that we have by the best we have in America to provide it. When you walk away from that information, that to me is concerning. They’re going to tell you what the facts are and then it’s up to policymakers to take it from there.”
Rogers went on to point out that Putin is a “former KGB agent trained in manipulation” and expressed hope that Trump’s intelligence chiefs will tell him that he shouldn’t trust Putin.
Fellow panelist CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin agreed.
“This is another example of the president’s weird deference to Vladimir Putin. This is not just any leader,” Toobin said. “This is Vladimir Putin, who he was trying to do business with, who was helping him win the election. I mean, there is something bizarre and perhaps sinister about the president’s relationship with Russia.“
Here’s the video via YouTube.
This all begs the question, if a former Republican House Intelligence Committee chairman is concerned, why aren’t current Republican lawmakers just as concerned or even more so? Because if they are letting Putin call the shots, they are complicit with Trump’s treachery.
Featured Image: Screenshot
