Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), issued a blistering response to Thursday’s explosive reporting that Donald Trump fired his acting intelligence chief for warning lawmakers that Russia is meddling in the 2020 campaign.
According to MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin, Rep. Thompson said Trump “is not only refusing to defend against foreign interference, he’s inviting it.”
Homeland Security Chair Thompson: “By firing Acting DNI Maguire because his staff provided the candid conclusions of the Intelligence Community to Congress regarding Russian meddling … the President is not only refusing to defend against foreign interference, he’s inviting it.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 20, 2020
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The Democratic lawmaker added, “[T]he President had made clear that he holds no regard for the rule of law or our system of government. It is frightening. Americans deserve better.”
By inviting Russian interference in the U.S. election, Trump is jeopardizing America’s national security and undermining democracy.
Every corner of Trump’s government is infected
In short, Trump didn’t want people to find out that Russia was helping him “win” another election, so he forced out the acting DNI who briefed lawmakers about the threat.
To make matters worse, the president is replacing the official with one of his diehard supporters. As PoliticusUSA’s Jason Easley noted on Thursday, the new acting DNI “has no intelligence community experience.”
In every corner of Trump’s government – even national security – the president is making it clear that administration officials should put his political interests over American interests.
Trump doesn’t care that Russia is meddling
The fact that Russia is again actively meddling in another presidential election to help Donald Trump is bad enough.
What makes this situation so much worse is that Republicans in Congress – particularly Mitch McConnell in the Senate – have repeatedly refused to safeguard our elections from such threats, and the president of the United States continues to show that he doesn’t care if Russia meddles again so long as it’s done on his behalf.
Donald Trump is a dangerous narcissist. When given the news that Russia poses an active threat to American democracy, the only thing he cares about is the fact that his intelligence community informed Democrats.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.