America's Top Spies Challenge Trump's Lies on Russia Election Interference

One of Donald Trump's most persistent lies has been that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election.  Why so?  Personally, I suspect it is because he knows that the interference took place and that he and his campaign collude with and participated in the effort.  Otherwise, why deny what everyone other than Trump's Kool-Aid drinking base can see?  John McCain has stated that it happened.  So has George W. Bush, not the brightest bulb on the shelf, as have countless others, including the heads of America's intelligence agencies - its top spies, if you will - who testified before Congress yesterday about the ongoing Russian efforts. Efforts that will likely seek to sway the 2018 midterms and cause more distrust in America's electoral process.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the testimony by Trump's own agency heads that directly contradicts Trump's continued lies.  Here are article excerpts:

On Tuesday, the top intelligence officials in the United States briefed senators on their annual assessments of the threats facing the country in the year ahead. Although most of these principals were Trump appointees, their testimony reflected the consensus of what some Trump supporters would probably tar as the “deep state,” the shadowy world of Washington bureaucrats and spooks operating at a remove from the public.

The headline concern of their report was something that exasperates the president: the role of Russian meddling in U.S. politics, whether in the form of direct attempts to interfere with the electoral system or the proliferation of Kremlin-sponsored social media bots and "news" websites.

“Russian hackers are already scanning American electoral systems, intelligence officials have said, and using bot armies to promote partisan causes on social media,” wrote Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times. “Russia also appears eager to spread information — real and fake — that deepens political divisions, including purported evidence that ties Mr. Trump to Russia, and its efforts to influence the 2016 election.” “Trump has shown no interest in investigating what actually happened two years ago and bolstering America’s defenses against it happening again.”  But for his top spies, it's deadly serious.

“Frankly, the United States is under attack,” said Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats to the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place in the United States.” He added that “there should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations.”

That verdict, my colleagues noted, “was echoed by all five other intelligence agency heads present at the hearing, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who two weeks ago stated publicly he had 'every expectation' that Russia will try to influence the coming elections.”

In a report released in conjunction with the hearing, Coats cast Russia as a leading destabilizing actor in the West. “Moscow seeks to create wedges that reduce trust and confidence in democratic processes, degrade democratization efforts, weaken U.S. partnerships with European allies, undermine Western sanctions, encourage anti-US political views, and counter efforts to bring Ukraine and other former Soviet states into European institutions,” the report read. Trump's opponents in the Senate took the opportunity to pounce. “Make no mistake: This threat did not begin in 2016, and it certainly didn’t end with the election,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.). “What we are seeing is a continuous assault by Russia to target and undermine our democratic institutions, and they are going to keep coming at us.”

“Despite all of this, the president inconceivably continues to deny the threat posed by Russia,” he continued.  

Likewise, the intelligence community's threat assessment suggests sharp divergences from Trump's agenda. For one, it concluded that the nuclear deal signed with Tehran is largely working. “Iran’s implementation of the [nuclear deal] has extended the amount of time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon from a few months to about one year, provided Iran continues to adhere to the deal’s major provisions,” the report noted. It added that the agreement has “also enhanced the transparency of Iran’s nuclear activities.”

Then there's the question of climate change. Much as the Pentagon has in recent years, the threat assessment warned that rising global temperatures are “likely to fuel economic and social discontent — and possibly upheaval.” Rising seas, scarcer resources and collapsing ecosystems, it said, will “raise the risk of humanitarian disasters, conflict, water and food shortages, population migration, labor shortfalls, price shocks, and power outages.”

The warnings are ones that Trump, who is seemingly fixated on restoring American primacy in the world, theoretically ought to heed. But if we have learned anything over the past year, it's how unlikely he is to listen.

The word treason is bandied about too lightly at times, but in the case of Trump's refusal to address the threat that even his own appointees have confirm does raise the question of whether the word applies to Trump, who seemingly is only too happy to have Russia continue its attacks on America's constitutional system - something Trump swore to uphold and protect.  His continued failure to admit and address the Russian efforts must be called what it is in fact.