The Patriot Post® · How Crazy Are Things?

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/47519-how-crazy-are-things-2017-02-17

We’ve warned you before, but from this moment on everything you read in the mainstream press or watch on the evening news should be viewed very skeptically until you get confirmation from a source you trust. The Left is resorting to non-stop fake news to undermine the trust of the American people and scare weak-kneed Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Here’s the latest example: Wednesday night a story broke suggesting that the intelligence community was so convinced that President Trump was compromised by Russia, it was withholding intelligence information from him.

Rush Limbaugh said that he went to bed thinking a coup was taking place. Then he re-read the report Thursday morning and realized it was just another example of fake news.

Here’s the headline from The Wall Street Journal: “Spies Keep Intelligence From Donald Trump on Leak Concerns.”

Again, it is absolutely essential that you read more than just the headline. Here’s the key paragraph of the report:

Intelligence officials have in the past not told a president or members of Congress about the ins and outs of how they ply their trade. At times, they have decided that secrecy is essential for protecting a source, and that all a president needs to know is what that source revealed and what the intelligence community thinks is important about it.

In other words, it’s not unusual for the intelligence community to withhold information. The report also notes that intelligence agencies have been asked to “pare down” the information sent to the White House, so obviously they are having to be more selective in what they give to the president.

But if you are a blue collar worker or a busy mother in the heartland of America, it’s unlikely that you are delving deep into these kinds of stories. The headlines alone can be at best deceiving or at worst fake news.

The President Responds

President Trump held a press conference yesterday at the White House. The president announced his new nominee for secretary of labor and made a few introductory remarks.

Before he took questions from reporters, President Trump said he was speaking directly to the American people because “many of our nation’s reporters will not tell you the truth, and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve.”

Then he opened up with both barrels. Here are some excerpts of the president’s remarks:

Unfortunately, much of the media … speaks not for the people,but for the special interests and for those profiting off of a very, very obviously broken system. The press has become so dishonest… The level of dishonestly is out of control.

I ran for president to represent the citizens of our country. I am here to change the broken system so it serves their families and their communities well. I am taking on this very entrenched power structure… As a result the media is going through what they have to go through to distort … but we’re not going to let it happen.

President Trump said reporters should be ashamed of themselves for publishing classified information. He blasted the media’s obsession with Russia as “fake news,” denounced The Wall Street Journal story as “disgraceful” and condemned the hateful tone in much of the press.

McMullin Goes to War

Remember Evan McMullin? Washington establishment insiders pushed McMullin as a third party alternative to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. McMullin claimed that he would rebuild the Republican Party after Trump’s loss. Well, Trump didn’t lose and now Evan McMullin is going to war against the Trump administration.

Wednesday morning, McMullin, who once worked for the CIA, tweeted: “By oath, intelligence officials’ first duty is to ‘defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…’”

Later in the day, he went on the “Clinton News Network,” a.k.a. CNN, and said that some in the intelligence community believe that “Donald Trump presents a threat to the country because of his — what they see as his relationship with Vladimir Putin.” McMullin made his outrageous comment without offering even a shred of evidence.

If anyone in the intelligence community has real evidence that the president or someone close to him has been compromised, they should boldly step forward and present it to the American people instead of leaking incomplete information to left-wing reporters.

Does Mr. McMullin have information that the rest of us do not have?

Does he know that the leakers are legitimate members of the intelligence community — career analysts or covert agents — versus political hacks?

Is McMullin involved in an effort to overturn and invalidate the last election?

Evan McMullin abandoned his party. He has forfeited any right to be involved in any effort to rebuild the GOP when he is making common cause with a left-wing narrative promoted by people who have been weak and ineffective in confronting Russia for the past 40 years.

By the way, does McMullin recall that Hillary Clinton greased the skids for a deal that allowed the Russians to gain possession of 20% of our uranium reserves? President Trump brought this up at his press conference yesterday.

That uranium sale was something tangible that the Obama administration and Clinton Foundation did that had real results for Russian military strength. No one in the mainstream media was interested, and no one suggested that Hillary was compromised or co-opted in any way.

And yet we’re supposed to think that Michael Flynn talking to the Russian ambassador is a threat to national security.

What should scare Americans more: That Russian hackers released emails from the Democrat National Committee, all of which were real messages — no fake news there — that exposed embarrassing conversations between leading Democrats?

Or that people embedded in the most important intelligence areas of the country are trying through anonymous leaks to overturn a fair and legal election?

I don’t think it’s a close call.