Wednesday, the unqualified Trumper who is the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, made a bizarre appearance in which he suggested – but never actually stated – that Iran is behind a barrage of emails, purportedly from the Trump-allied Proud Boys, telling Democrats to vote for Trump “or we will come after you.” Ratcliffe also made the bizarre claim that those pro-Trump emails were sent in an effort to “damage President Trump.” Sen. Charles Schumer and other Democrats are not buying it.
The timing of Ratcliffe’s gobbledygook of an announcement is suspicious, too. It came shortly after former President Barack Obama delivered a stemwinder against Donald Trump in a campaign speech for Biden/Harris. Timed to distract from Obama by the Obama-obsessed Trump administration? I report, you decide.
New reporting by The New York Times suggests that legit intel officials are concerned about Ratcliffe putting too much blame on Iran and not enough on Russian efforts to help Trump:
While senior Trump administration officials said this week that Iran has been actively interfering in the presidential election, many intelligence officials said they remained far more concerned about Russia, which has in recent days hacked into state and local computer networks in breaches that could allow Moscow broader access to American voting infrastructure.
The discovery of the hacks came as American intelligence agencies, infiltrating Russian networks themselves, have pieced together details of what they believe are Russia’s plans to interfere in the presidential race in its final days or immediately after the election on Nov. 3.
Officials did not make clear what Russia planned to do, but they said its operations would be intended to help President Trump, potentially by exacerbating disputes around the results, especially if the race is too close to call.
The Times noted that the officials said Ratcliffe “had accurately summarized the preliminary conclusion about Iran” but that “One official compared the Iranian action to single-A baseball, while the Russians are major leaguers.”
It turns out that the Trump administration has known for weeks that Russia hacked into elections systems. From NBC News:
In a technical alert issued Thursday, the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that hackers working for the Russian government had successfully broken into several local government networks, and as of the beginning of October, had stolen data from at least two of them. In at least one instance, the hackers were able to crawl across the victim’s computer network to access a wide array of information, including how to reset passwords and print ID badges.
In other words, this:
We need to be VERY clear on what has happened here.
- The Trump Admin knew Russia was seriously attacking our election and said nothing
- When that was about to come out, the Director of National Intelligence held a press conference where he flatly misled the public
1/3 https://t.co/KLCRGUILYo— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 22, 2020
- Now that the news has broken, it is 100% clear Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe knowingly and intentionally 1) misrepresented the facts; and 2) did so to help Trump
Last night’s press conference was the equivalent of Barr’s memo lying about the Mueller Report.
2/3— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 22, 2020
That isn’t hyperbole.
Ratcliffe raced to hold a press conference to *falsely* preemptively frame a threat to our national security.
He did so to protect Trump.
Ratcliffe is the Bill Barr of Intelligence.
He must be placed under maximum scrutiny.
Maximum.
3/3— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 22, 2020
