CIA officials keep putting the heat on Donald J. Trump and his friends in Russia.
They now are asserting that Russian computer hackers actually did try to get Trump elected president of the United States.
What I am not yet clear about, though, is what precisely did the Russians do. How precisely did they seek to do what CIA spooks are alleging?
I happen to believe the broad outlines of what the CIA is asserting. I believe the reports that Russia tried to get their hands into our electoral process. It’s not a figment of Democrats’ imagination, as Trump says in response. It’s not the media, either, that are fomenting a lie, as Trump and his team also seem to imply.
This story is growing more legs than a centipede.
Furthermore, I am having even more trouble with Trump’s continual rebuff of what the career spooks at the CIA are saying. He’ll need these individuals, these intelligence teams, once he becomes president. They will be providing him mountains of intelligence daily — or however often Trump chooses to receive it.
When trouble erupts around the world — and it will, no doubt — the president needs the analysis.
It’s fair to wonder how this relationship between the White House and the intelligence network is going to work if the president keeps denigrating the work of the pros who toil day and night compiling information about our international adversaries.
I continue to believe the president-elect needs to get on board with the concerns being expressed and stop saying up front these concerns lack veracity.
The CIA says Russian President Vladimir PutinĀ himself got involved. This happens to be someone who has praised Trump and who has received reciprocal praise from the president-elect. Putin also ran the KGB during the Soviet era; if you haven’t heard, the KGB was a ruthless spy organization.
Thus, this story continues to spread. It’s making me quite nervous.
