The sole reason I have posted this is that it is only available
in this verbiage (although most real news sources have something analogous) and
needs to be seen as conclusive proof that our lame duck dictator is off the rails.
He is now attacking the credibility of essentially the entire intelligence
community and State Department including Mike Pompeo who has been his toady and
generally complicit in supporting Trump’s stream of lies since he fired Rex
Tillerson for being competent and moral. (italics are mine)
Washington Post
Trump
contradicts Pompeo in bid to downplay massive hack of U.S. government, Russia’s
role
Ellen Nakashima and
Josh Dawsey
Dec. 19, 2020 at 4:43 p.m. EST
President Trump
addressed the ongoing cyber hacks of the U.S. government for the first time on
Saturday, seeking to turn blame away from Moscow in defiance of
mounting evidence while downplaying how devastating the intrusions appear to
be.
In a bizarre
outburst on Twitter that Trump’s critics condemned for its alarming disconnect
from the facts, the president contradicted his top diplomat, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, who on Friday pinned the breaches that have afflicted at least
five major federal agencies “clearly” on Russia. Rather, the president
baselessly suggested that the true culprit “may be China”
Trump’s
aversion to calling out the Kremlin for its malign activities in cyberspace and
his deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a
hallmark of his presidency. He has repeatedly trusted the word of Putin
over the assessments of his own intelligence community, including its
conclusion that Russia waged a sophisticated campaign to interfere in the 2016
presidential election — a verdict Trump believes calls into question the
legitimacy of his victory four years ago.
His tweets
Saturday raise fresh concerns that he will seek to shrug off what may turn out
to be a cyber hack of unprecedented scale, and that Russia will not be held to
account. The president has complained to advisers, who believe Russia is
culpable, that the intrusions are a fake narrative meant to damage him
politically.
“The Cyber Hack
is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality,” Trump tweeted,
despite a federal alert in recent days that called the widespread cyber
espionage campaign “a grave risk to” government agencies and the private
sector.
“I have been
fully briefed and everything is well under control,” he said, while agencies
are scrambling to investigate and contain major breaches at agencies including
the State, Treasury, Energy, Homeland Security and Commerce departments — an
effort that is likely to take months.
He also
speculated, with no evidence, that the hacks may also have included “a hit on
our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I
won big.” Twitter flagged that assertion, saying that “multiple sources called
this election differently.” There is no evidence that November’s election was
undermined by significant or widespread fraud, despite Trump’s insistence
otherwise.
Trump had,
until Saturday, studiously avoided the topic, reluctant to address publicly an
issue that has bedeviled him since he took office: Russia’s hacking of U.S.
targets. He broke his silence only after he was criticized publicly by
lawmakers from both parties for an apparent unwillingness to confront Putin.
White House
officials had drafted a statement to be released Friday accusing Moscow of
carrying out the cyber intrusions in a months-long campaign, but they were
blocked from doing so, said a senior administration official, who like others
spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. (end
of WaPo article)
It is time for the men in white coats. If you still believe Donald
Trump fit to govern, call a cab and have yourself committed as well.
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