This is good (or not good, as the case may be). Tulsi has made a mess. And Trump and others are Not Happy about this. Apparently, she did something on her own that should have been cleared by Trump and those others before taking any action. She’s up to her ears in alligators. Still! From Raw Story:
Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is in hot water with the president’s top advisers, according to new reporting. Gabbard, a former Democrat who was accepted into the White House fold, left Trump’s chief aides completely in the dark when it came to certain security clearances, according to the Guardian’s weekend report. In an exclusive called “Tulsi Gabbard did not alert White House before revoking 37 security clearances,” the outlet reported, “Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, did not inform the White House that her office was revoking the security clearances of 37 people – including top deputies to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe – before it happened last month, according to three people familiar with the matter.”
She was a Democrat? Ew. I feel slimy. She ought not to have done things without proper input. But she did, and it’s done. No going back now, or so it seems. Something that major, done on her own, was not a good idea. She revoked the clearance of people who actually needed and used them for what they were doing. What was she thinking? She didn’t need approval or even input?
The article continues, stating, “The move caused consternation because it resulted in the White House not having an opportunity to closely vet the list before it became public, and there appeared to be no paper trail from the president directing the effort, the people said.” “As a result, officials only realized after the fact that Gabbard had managed to pull the security clearances of career CIA officials, at least one of whom was a top adviser to Ratcliffe and had worked on some of the US’s most sensitive military operations, the people said,” according to the report. “The list also included two Democratic congressional staffers – Maher Bitar, the national security adviser to Senator Adam Schiff, and Thomas West, an aide on the Senate foreign relations committee – prompting fears the administration would be thrust into a messy separation-of-powers issue.”
Oh, yes, busted. Oh, yes, didn’t think first, or not enough. When you look at some of the people who had theirs revoked, she opened a really big can of whoopass, and she’s about drowning in it because people are using it. We knew she was incompetent and not qualified for the position, but this is pretty damn big. This is pretty damn stupid. But she won’t be fired for it, because Trump picked her, so. Pity.
But things reportedly didn’t end there, as now some close to Trump are apparently holding a grudge. “Weeks later, several of Trump’s top advisers remain deeply frustrated with Gabbard and view the episode as a blunder that comes as Trump is skeptical of the intelligence community and has suggested dismantling the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI),” according to The Guardian’s reporting.
My, my, my. She put her foot in it big time. She’s going to have trouble recovering from this one. She’s going to have to pull off something spectacular to make up for it. But what?
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that of all of the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thanks. Ursula
wtf do we need the CIA these days? For what? For who?
we need someone to spy on our allies, obviously.