JED BABBIN:
“…It was inevitable. After the Democrats failed to evict Donald Trump from office through the Mueller investigation and then the ridiculous impeachment over the Zelensky telephone call, they would have to try something else to ruin him before the November election. Rush Limbaugh was the first to predict that they’d go back to the “Russia collusion” narrative, and they have.
It began with a briefing by acting Director of National Intelligence, Joe Maguire and one of his aides, to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The briefing, given to both Democrats and Republicans, reportedly informed them that the Russians are interfering in the 2020 election to help President Trump get reelected. In reaction, Trump gave Maguire hell and then removed him, naming one of Trump’s staunchest supporters — U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell — to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence while remaining in his ambassadorial post.
Grenell is a bad choice for DNI for reasons we’ll get to in a minute. The important question is what intelligence information and analysis justified this politically explosive and possibly destabilizing briefing?
When some of the HPSCI members pressed the briefers for evidence to support the claim, there was none to be had. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said he has not been informed of any intelligence that justified the claim.
Stop there for a moment. O’Brien and the HPSCI members are entitled to know what support there is for such a politically destabilizing allegation. If there were no supporting facts, what justified the briefing?
How gullible and, frankly, stupid did the intel crew have to be to represent the supposed plot to interfere as fact?…”