DHS Sec Nielsen Stabs U.S. in the Back Claiming That Russia Didn’t Interfere on Trump’s Behalf

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Thursday that we need to brace for election interference in all 50 states. But she also pretended that Putin had not interfered on Trump’s or Republicans’ behalf in 2018.

Nielsen, at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, was asked about the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Putin directed the campaign to favor Trump, said:

“I haven’t seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party. I think what we’ve seen on the foreign influence side is they were attempting to intervene and cause chaos on both sides.

“The overall purpose is to sow discord.”

Jim Sciutto drew attention to a portion of Neilsen’s comments where she denied that Putin interfered on behalf of Trump and Republicans:

This is called gaslighting. Or perhaps even treason. At best, she is not doing her duty to protect this country and she is protecting Putin and Trump, which should not be a thing. Putin and Trump should not be so deep in cahoots that they are a team whose lies and propaganda are being protected by our DHS.

The United States was and is being attacked by Russia. The head of the Department of Homeland Security ought to be speaking about it with accuracy instead of lying about their known, established purpose of helping Trump and Republicans. But because she is a part of this administration, she is lying for Trump and stabbing her country in the back.

This is a problem. Even if Trump were to be impeached, this entire administration is rotten to the core – handpicked by a man whose loyalties are with Vladimir Putin, and or his own pocket book, rather than the United States.

Trump is already setting up a second meeting with Putin, and Putin is showing off his “weapons” in what can only be seen as d*ck waving over Trump. This is an international and national security crisis, not a time for the DHS Secretary to be misleading the public about Putin’s actions.

It is a fact that Putin interfered on behalf of Donald Trump. It also appears as if Trump worked with Putin to “win” this election. Which is to say, we did not have a fair, democratic election in 2016 – a fact that would alarm any DHS person whose loyalty was with this country.

Update: This title was updated one minute after publishing to correct a misspelling of Nielsen’s name from “Neilsen” to “Nielsen.”

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.