Dereliction of duty
The huge story that broke yesterday regarding Donald Trump's downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, when he was fully aware of its seriousness, has drawn much attention and rightfully so. But you might have missed another important story that also deserves notice. According to a whistleblower's account, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf reportedly told DHS to stop producing intel assessments on Russia's election interference and shift the focus to China and Iran. Once again, this administration is providing cover to Moscow as it furthers its disinformation campaign to divide Americans and help Trump hold onto power. Politicization and weaponization of intelligence is enabling Moscow's attacks and, ultimately, can be used to justify further abuses of power against the American people. It must be thoroughly repudiated. —Evan McMullin
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1. The jig is up
What did he know, and when did he know it? There's no more ambiguity to those questions. We now know that President Trump knew in February that COVID-19 was "deadly stuff"—spread through the air, worse than the flu, capable of sickening even the young and healthy. It's in his own words, in one of 18 recorded interviews with journalist Bob Woodward. In March, Trump unabashedly admitted to Woodward, "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down." Why? He says to avoid creating a panic. His Democratic presidential opponent, Joe Biden, isn't buying it. "He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat posed to the country for months," Biden said yesterday. "He failed to do his job on purpose. It was a life-and-death betrayal of the American people." —The Wall Street Journal
— Meanwhile, COVID-19 soldiers on. One month after Florida's schools reopened, dozens of classrooms, and some entire schools, have been temporarily closed because of coronavirus outbreaks, and infections among school-age children have jumped 34%. But parents in many parts of the state don't know if the outbreaks are related to their own schools because the state ordered some counties to keep health data secret. So many secrets. —The Washington Post
— Vaccine trial remains on hold. The participant who triggered a global shutdown of AstraZeneca's Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trials was a woman in the UK who experienced neurological symptoms after receiving the vaccine. She is improving and will likely be discharged from the hospital as early as today. AstraZeneca's is the first trial known to have been put on hold. Such holds are not uncommon, but it's not clear yet how long AstraZeneca's will last. —STAT
— Corona conspiracies continue. This time in Ohio, where yesterday Republican Gov. Mike DeWine shot down as "absolutely ridiculous" a rumor making the rounds online. The latest theory is that the state's non-congregate shelter order allows the state to forcibly separate people with COVID-19 from their families and place them in FEMA-controlled concentration camps. DeWine dismissed the rumor, saying, "What we are doing is making available a safe place for people to stay when they have loved ones they're trying to protect and they have no other place to go." —Mahoning Matters
MORE: Senate paralyzed over coronavirus relief —Politico
2. NYT Ed Board: Trump betrayed Americans
"Trump's lack of leadership almost certainly made the nation's suffering greater, its death toll higher, and its economic costs more severe in the long term. When the president dithered on testing and contact tracing, when he failed to make or execute a clear and effective plan for securing personal protective equipment, when he repeatedly belittled and dismissed mask mandates and other social distancing edicts, Trump knew the virus was deadly and airborne. He knew that millions of people could get sick, and many would die. Furthermore, [writer Bob] Woodward's tapes make clear that members of the Trump Administration failed to act—even behind the scenes—based on what they knew at the time." —The New York Times
MORE: Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci —Politico
3. One fascinating, frightening book
Bob Woodward's forthcoming book, "Rage," due out on Sept. 15, covers much more than the coronavirus pandemic. The book reveals that while President Trump attacked the nation's generals as weak and too focused on allies, they were privately concerned that they might have to take "collective action" against him due to his unfitness for office. Specifically, former Defense Sec. Jim Mattis had several such conversations with former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. Mattis said the president "has no moral compass," and Coats responded, "True. To him, a lie is not a lie. It's just what he thinks. He doesn't know the difference between the truth and a lie." —National Review
— "How else to explain the president's behavior?" Coats, who served as Trump's top intelligence official from March 2017 to August 2019, had suspicions that Russian President Vladimir Putin "had something on Trump." Woodward writes that Coats "continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump." —The Hill
— "You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you?" As protests broke out across the country over the killing of George Floyd, Woodward asked Trump whether they both were isolated and caged from understanding "the anger and pain" of Black Americans as two white men of the same generation with similarly privileged upbringings. "Just listen to you," Trump said contemptuously. "Wow. No, I don't feel that at all." —Forbes
— "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone." After the brutal assassination and dismembering of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump bragged that he protected Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "I saved his a--," said Trump, who bypassed Congress to sell roughly $8 billion in arms to the Saudis and the UAE, and vetoed a trio of resolutions blocking the sale as well as a resolution to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. —Business Insider
MORE: Fauci says Trump's attention span is a 'minus number,' only cares about getting re-elected —Newsweek
4. Shhhh...don't tell anyone
— Brian Murphy, a former DHS deputy undersecretary for intelligence, said in the complaint that Wolf told him in mid-May to begin reporting instead on political interference threats posed by China and Iran, and to highlight the involvement of left-wing groups in domestic disorder. The order allegedly came from White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.
— The complaint says Murphy declined to comply with Wolf's order because doing so "would put the country in substantial and specific danger." On a second occasion in July, Murphy says Wolf told him an intelligence notification on Russian disinformation efforts should be "held" because "it made the president look bad."
— Spokespeople for the White House and DHS have each denied the claims. U.S. intelligence assessments that a Russian influence operation aimed at swaying the 2016 election in President Trump's favor has overshadowed much of his presidency. Trump has expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government has denied election meddling. —Reuters
MORE: Taylor: When Trump tried to fire the DHS intelligence chief —CNN
5. Gordon: We must stop helping our foes defeat us
"[W]e continue to help our rivals. Maddeningly, the national conversation around election security has turned vitriolic, diversionary, and unhelpful, and we are doing our enemies' work for them. When intelligence assessments are described as biased, when federal institutions are decried as inept or corrupt, when vague fears of widespread tampering with our physical election infrastructure are advanced, and when disagreement over policy and approach turns to accusation of illegitimacy, our enemies' destructive goals are advanced as we busily attack ourselves." —The Washington Post
Ed. Note: Susan Gordon spent 31 years as a U.S. intelligence officer and was the principal deputy director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019.
MORE: Yaffa: Is Russian meddling as dangerous as we think? —The New Yorker
6. Biden campaign targeted by Russian hackers
— The attack was apparently unsuccessful, according to one person familiar with SKDK security systems. While it is suspected that the Biden campaign was the target of the attempted hacking, it is unclear if another SKDK Democratic client was the target.
— Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that an attack took place, calling it "nonsense." Russia has long denied its attacks against U.S. elections and individual candidates.
— Both the Mueller Investigation and the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation concluded that Russia was behind the 2016 election attacks. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia's efforts to hurt our elections continue to this day. —Reuters
MORE: New Woodward book says Russians hacked elections systems in St. Lucie, Washington counties —Tampa Bay Times
7. Weiss & Rumer: Reckoning with a resurgent Russia
"Among its many assets, the United States' alliances are its single most important. But they cannot be taken for granted. Putting an end, once and for all, to the Trump Administration's petty sniping about NATO and the EU would be an easy first step. Reestablishing unity of purpose with European allies and recommitting to their security would be the necessary second step that would energize them to take on a greater share of responsibility in meeting the threat from Russia." —Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Ed. Note: Ed Weiss is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, overseeing research on Russia and Eurasia. Eugene Rumer, a former national intelligence officer at the U.S. National Intelligence Council, is a senior fellow and the director of Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program.
8. Pence goes Q
— "They like me very much." The conspiracy theory is centered on the baseless idea that America's elite are cannibals and pedophiles engaged in a global fight to take down President Trump via the "deep state." Trump has not dismissed the conspiracy theory, and instead has retweeted several QAnon accounts and defended its supporters.
— Bring your tinfoil hat. The event hosts, Caryn and Michael Borland, have shared QAnon materials on their social media profiles and retweeted posts from accounts associated with QAnon.
— Where we go one, we go all. Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top Trump campaign fundraiser; GOP chair Ronna McDaniel; Republican National Committee finance chair Todd Ricketts; and RNC co-chair Tommy Hicks, Jr. are expected to join the vice president at the event. —Axios
MORE: QAnon conspiracy theory is on the ballot in some states this November —MarketWatch
9. Pilkington: 'Our democracy is deeply imperiled'
"[W]ith 55 days to go before Election Day, the sense is building that this cycle has veered way beyond the normal imperfections...of U.S. elections. Deep cracks are being prised open in the core institutions and structures of democracy itself that raise the question: is the edifice revered for more than 200 years quite as solid and robust as assumed?" —The Guardian
10. An American Story: A new beginning for Millie
— Forced to shut down and lay off her employees, she worked to make ends meet by returning to her first love, catering. It was working out well for a while, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and her events were canceled at breakneck speed.
— Then, a new lifeline. A friend reached out to Peartree because she wanted to donate meals on behalf of her company. In a matter of months, Millie Peartree Catering had fed nearly 6,000 essential workers, including hospital staff, USPS workers, MTA employees, and bodega workers, as well as social justice protesters.
— The experience brought an epiphany. Instead of reopening her restaurant, Peartree decided to pivot her efforts toward feeding children who were affected by food distribution programs that had been canceled or reduced due to the pandemic. She created "Full Heart Full Bellies" to provide prepared meals for children in the Bronx, which is the poorest of the five boroughs. "I don't have the most, but I don't have the least either," Peartree said. "I just feel like, as human beings, we should give what we can. You never know when any of us could be in a situation where we need something." —NBC News
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In the 1930s at the beginning of Hitler's reign, he had two types of supporters: the violent brown-shirt true believers, and the second more numerous group who felt wary of Hitler's rantings but supported his policies of rejecting the Treaty of Versailles penalties, rebuilding military strength, and reestablishing German ethnic and national pride. The second group, along with other European powers, believed Hitler would moderate his extreme racial and Lebensraum beliefs as he matured as a leader.
Parallels to today are scary. Yes, we have the Constitution to protect us against corrosive acts of demagoguery by our leaders, but we must recognize these acts as more threatening to our common welfare than any issue of government policy. We should shine a light on the "blood and soil" resentment politics of the true believers and strive to convince the uneasy supporters that history can repeat if we are not vigilant. —Paul P., Texas
Trump's statement that "the top people in the Pentagon...want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy" is the kind of rhetoric that, until now, came only from the extreme anti-American Left. When will Conservatives understand that Trump is not a Conservative—he is an anti-American extremist? —Ron W., New York
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