Trump’s attack on the intel community a perilous antic
Michael Gerson
Donald Trump has a problem that comes not from the cast of “Hamilton” but from Hamilton himself.
In Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton deals with that odd, anti-democratic feature of our constitutional order, the Electoral College, which has dictated a different outcome from the popular vote in two of the past five presidential elections. The goal, he says, is to provide a check on “cabal, intrigue and corruption” — a threat he specifies as coming “chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magis- tracy of the Union?”
All of a sudden, this fear does not seem quite so paranoid. A case has been accumulating for months. Trump has repeatedly expressed a soft spot for Vladimir Putin. Trump publicly invited Russia to hack his opponent’s emails. Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, resigned amid reports that he had represented pro-Russian interests as a lobbyist. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has appeared on Russia’s propaganda network.
The CIA, according to reporting in The Washington Post, has shared with Congress its finding that Russia intervened in our election to swing the vote for Trump. And Trump — instead of expressing concern about an act of cyberwar — has essentially come to Russia’s defense and launched an ad hominem attack on the U.S. intelligence community. A few points: First, the debate over whether Russia engaged in cyberespionage to help Trump or just to generally mess with American democracy is utter nonsense. Russian espionage resulted in the phased leak of material damaging to the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton at key moments during a presidential campaign. Anyone who finds Russia’s motivation mysterious is being intentionally obtuse.
Second, if the CIA interpretation is correct, this is not just one provocation among many. If Putin actually helped elect a president more favorable to Russian interests, it is surely the largest intelligence coup since the cracking of the Enigma code during World War II.
Third, we will never know for sure if Russian espionage caused Trump to win. With Clinton losing by an 80,000-vote margin in three key states, everything — her poor messaging, her consistently bungled response to the email controversy, FBI Director James Comey’s untimely letter — can be posited as the reason she lost. A hypothetical outcome minus Russian involvement is not just unknown, it is unknowable.
Fourth, Trump’s attack on the intelligence community for incompetence is an insanely dangerous antic that materially undermines American security.
Will congressional Republicans pass the first big test of their integrity by convening a joint committee to investigate?
Democrats might take a page from the Federalist Papers and demand that the 538 electors of the Electoral College be fully briefed before they cast ballots on Monday. This would be very unlikely to change the election’s outcome, but at least it would demonstrate the type of scrutiny the Founders intended.
Has a foreign power gained improper ascendance in our country? Unless that possibility is confronted in forthright fashion, suspicion will only linger and fester.