Coats asserts ‘unvarnished’ intel
Lawmakers accuse Trump of siding with Putin
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats underscored the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, countering his boss, President Donald Trump.
“The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers,” Coats said in a statement. “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”
Coats’ statement came hours after Trump stood next to Vladimir Putin at a news conference in Helsinki and accepted the Russian president’s denials of interference in the U.S. election.
“My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me, some others, they said they think it’s Russia,” Trump said at the news conference. “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
The remarks brought swift condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Some suggested Coats should step down to maintain his integrity.
“If Dan Coats doesn’t resign today over this, he has no honor,” tweeted Mike Murphy, a GOP consultant and Trump critic at the Harvard Belfer Center.
Richard Lugar, a former Republican senator from Indiana, said Coats should “just keep his head down and do his duty” because his experience is too valuable to lose.
“I think it’s important to the country that he stay where he is,” Lugar said.
Coats painted a stark picture Friday of cybersecurity threats to the nation – and named Russia as the most aggressive foreign actor.
Last week, the Justice Department indicted a dozen Russian military intelligence officers for allegedly attempting to undermine the 2016 election in part by hacking into the Democratic National Committee.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, expressed disbelief Monday that Trump did not back up U.S. intelligence agencies.
“When he had the opportunity to defend our intelligence agencies, who work for him, I was very disappointed and saddened with the equivalency he gave between them and what Putin was saying,” Corker said.
Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, tweeted that Trump sided with Putin over Coats.
“How humiliating for Coats – broadcast to the world,” McFaul tweeted.