This post is going to be a little ironic considering my last post and update, but Trump is reportedly denying that Russia is still targeting the US despite warnings from his Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats.
Via the AP:
President Donald Trump was asked at the end of a Cabinet meeting if Russia was still targeting the United States. The president said, “no,” contradicting recent warnings from his top intelligence chief.
Trump’s comment came after National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said last Friday that warning lights about overall cyber threats to the U.S. are “blinking red” — much like “blinking red” signals warned before the 9/11 attacks.
Trump did not elaborate on the threat posed by Russia, telling reporters that no American president has been as “tough” on Russia as he has been.
Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor, but cyber threats also are coming from China, Iran and North Korea, as well as criminal networks and individual hackers, Coats said last week.
Here’s video of this exchange:
President Trump responds 'No' when asked if Russia is still targeting the United States pic.twitter.com/oy9xeUI0FM
— Axios (@axios) July 18, 2018
Just to be crystal clear about this, here’s the video of Coat’s warning from last Friday. He specifically calls out Russian government actors targeting aviation, nuclear, and critical manufacturing areas (it’s cued up for you):
So either Trump isn’t being briefed and doesn’t know, which is very unlikely, or he’s not admitting it for some other reason. Or he was saying ‘no’ to someone else in the room. Or he ‘misspoke’ again. You all can make an assumption about that if you like, but at the very least it does sound like Trump is contradicting his DNI again, assuming the reporting on the video is accurate.
I’m sure he’ll be asked about his again and hopefully he’ll expound on it a bit more than just ‘no’.
UPDATE:
Well the White House is now saying Trump wasn’t saying ‘NO’ to the answer by the reporter, but ‘NO’ to taking questions at all.
.@MajorCBS: Does @POTUS actually believe Russia is not still targeting the U.S.? Does he understand the question, and is his position that no, Russia is not doing anything to interfere or meddle in the 2018 election? https://t.co/JJgYHR8kWv pic.twitter.com/m6ulk474oV
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 18, 2018
Mmmmhmmmm. Yeah. Ok.