Even before American intelligence agencies released a report on Friday in which they stated that Russia did indeed interfere with the 2016 election to tip the balance in favor of Donald Trump, Trump advisers had begun to hint that the President-elect would “restructure” the intelligence community because he believed it had become overly “politicized.”
But might the real reason Trump wants to meddle with the Office of National Intelligence be so he can hide his connections to the Russian hacking which led to his unexpected victory on November 8?
On AMJoy Saturday morning, national security expert Malcolm Nance said he fears Trump will cripple American intelligence capabilities so he can cover his tracks, telling host Joy Reid that Trump’s refusal to admit Russia was involved can be traced back to July of 2016:
“When Donald Trump made his statement on July 27th of last year where he asked for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton and release her e-mails, at that point he went from being an unwitting useful idiot to Russia to actually believing that they were working in his favor. To admit that now, in the face of all the evidence, he would believe that this would delegitimize his presidency and he will fight to the end to not allow this to become a narrative.”
What will Trump do next to assure no links can be found that connect him to Russia and Vladimir Putin? Nance explained:
“I suspect that in two weeks he’s going to attempt to cover this all up and even gut the intelligence community. He is pushing this nation to a constitutional crisis of unprecedented magnitude, because no one has ever worked in the interests of a hostile nation and supporting, to a certain extent, a hostile intelligence service.”
A constitutional crisis is exactly what will be created if and when Trump tries to gut American intelligence capabilities. But the million dollar question is this: Do congressional Republicans have the balls to stand up to Trump’s attempts to weaken our national security, or are they nothing more than Putin’s puppets, too?
Featured Image Via MSNBC Screengrab
