Trump, Citing No Evidence, Suggests CIA Chief Is Leaking ‘Fake News,’ Like the 35 Page Russian Dossier

Does Attempting to Discredit America’s Intelligence Agencies and Their Chiefs, With Zero Evidence, ‘Make America Great Again’?

Donald Trump is asking if CIA chief John Brennan is behind what he calls leaks of “fake news,” presumably including the 35-page dossier containing unverified accusations against the President-elect, that details what it claims as some of the compromising information Russia has against Trump.

Trump has been furious about CNN’s report last week that says both he and President Barack Obama were briefed on a two-page memo summarizing what some believe is the 35-page document, which Buzzfeed hours later published. The accusations in the document have been described as disqualifying.

In a series of tweets Sunday night, Trump, referring to the damaging dossier, cited The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, saying the reporter who helped break the Watergate story called the dossier “garbage.”

Trump, who almost never has publicly apologized for anything, demanded the intelligence chiefs “APOLOGIZE.”

He then took on outgoing CIA chief John Brennan, an intelligence professional who spent 25 years at the CIA before becoming President Barack Obama’s chief counterterrorism advisor. In 2013 he returned to the CIA, as its Director.

Brennan Sunday morning blasted Trump for not grasping just how dangerous Vladimir Putin and Russia are – and how Trump’s “spontaneity” could lead to disaster.

“The world is watching now what Trump says and listening very carefully,” the CIA chief said to Fox News. “If he doesn’t have confidence in the intelligence community, what signal does that send to our partners and allies as well as our adversaries?”

As he always does, Trump fought back, accusing Director Brennan of possibly being the source of the “fake news”:

CBS News called it, “extraordinary criticism from the incoming president.” 

London’s Daily Mail offered this take:

“Trump goes for the jugular and asks his 20M Twitter followers if outgoing CIA boss John Brennan was behind Russian dirty dossier leak – hours after spy chief told him to watch his tongue.”

Attempting to discredit America’s intelligence agencies and their chiefs, with zero evidence, does not help protect America, or “Make America Great Again,” does it? 

 

You can respond directly to Donald Trump by sending your comments to him on Twitter: @realDonaldTrump.
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license