Trump puts an unqualified loyalist in charge of national intelligence

[Zorro]

President Trump's campaign to purge the government of anyone not blindly loyal to him continued Wednesday with the appointment of Richard Grenell as acting director of national intelligence. Mr. Grenell, who currently serves as ambassador to Germany, is manifestly unqualified for the job, even in an acting capacity. He has no experience in intelligence or in managing large organizations — like the 17 agencies that will now report to him.

Mr. Grenell has nevertheless won the president’s favor in a familiar way: by loudly praising him and his agenda on Fox News programs and social media. Probably, he has convinced Mr. Trump he can be counted on to put the president’s personal and political interests above those of national security — something the two previous DNIs would not reliably do.

Daniel Coats, the first intelligence chief under Mr. Trump, infuriated the president by publicly reporting and defending the agencies’ overwhelming consensus that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in an effort to help Mr. Trump, and was likely to do so again. Joseph Maguire, who served as acting director after Mr. Coats’s departure last summer, brokered a deal with the House Intelligence Committee to hand over a whistleblower’s report on Mr. Trump’s abuse of power in Ukraine. He was also blamed by the president for a briefing on 2020 election security given by an intelligence official to Congress last week.

Mr. Grenell’s sycophantic pandering to Mr. Trump suggests he will show no such independence. Before being elevated by the president to the Berlin ambassador’s post, his government experience amounted to working in the early 2000s as a U.S. spokesman at the United Nations, where he was known for nasty disputes with journalists. In Berlin, he quickly made himself unwelcome with public attacks on German government policies and outspoken support for right-wing nationalist movements around Europe. Though he can’t necessarily be blamed for Mr. Trump’s dismal standing among Germans — 13 percent said in a recent Pew Research Center poll that they had confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing regarding world affairs, the lowest figure in Europe — Mr. Grenell certainly contributed to it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-puts-an-unqualified-loyalist-in-charge-of-national-intelligence/2020/02/20/d1d8506a-540a-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html

[2naSalit]

1. Another Jared?

I smell revolt on the horizon.

[Eugene]

2. ...and he won't be alone.

NSC aide who worked to discredit Russia probe moves to senior ODNI post

Kash Patel, a former acolyte of Rep. Devin Nunes, is now a top adviser in the Office of National Intelligence.

Kash Patel, a former top National Security Council official who also played a key role as a Hill staffer in helping Republicans discredit the Russia probe, is now a senior adviser for new acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, according to four people familiar with the matter.

It’s not clear what exact role Patel is playing in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community. He started at ODNI on Thursday, according to an administration official.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/20/kash-patel-odni-post-116546

[Newest Reality]

3. Okay....

Let's see now...

Build a useless wall, but drop our national pants and bend all the way over as far as vital intelligence goes. Oh, that will work well.

I mean, what could go wrong? It's only our national security that's at stake. I am not usually prone to concerns or paranoia about it and our safety, but I am now, for sure.

So, is Basketball Face letting our guard down on purpose and compromising our intelligence on purpose or is it just about having the right noses rooting around in his brown? I think you could make a case for both, depending on how you see it.

[BigmanPigman]

4. Did you see the guy?

He looks like a Nazi-fied Max Headroom...

He also is a "gold card holder" in tRump's Dc hotel. Can you say, "Sieg Heil"?

[Thomas Hurt]

5. The word you are looking for is apparatchik.

[Scarsdale]

6. So, he is not qualified for the position.

Name anyone who is in this administration, starting at the "top". The less qualified people are, the higher up they go in the tRump cabal. The Mafia has higher requirements than this crew. It is being run as a family enterprise, staring Don the Con, Iwanka of the horse teeth, and little prick Jared. It is sad when the two tRump "boys" are not considered bad enough to be appointed to a taxpayer funded job. Maybe actually having responsibilities would cut into their time overseas shooting endangered animals, guarded by SS? Taxpayers should DEMAND an accounting of how much the family is costing taxpayers from the golf trips, business dealings overseas, hunting trips. Mnuchin wants to keep that all under wraps until after the election. Then, if Putin steals another election, those records will go along with all other reports, health, tax, travel all hidden until the Treasury is completely depleted. What a great country, eh? Just pay your taxes and SHUT UP.

[Thomas Hurt]

7. doesn't have to that is what an apparatchik is, installing them is a totalitarian practice.

that is what we should be communicating, not that he is unqualified.

Conservative smaller gov't isn't smaller gov't it is totalitarian centralized gov't

[RussBLib]

8. Does that position require Senate approval?

Even if so, the Senate GOP is terrorized by Terrorist Trump.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Nope, Trump discovered a loophole

to work around the Senate a couple years ago...

If someone is already an appointee he or she can assume a new job in an "acting" capacity without needing senate approval...

And Trump has been exploiting the absolute hell out of this