Trump’s ‘Dangerous’ Speech ‘Does the Work of Our Adversaries,’ Former Top Intel Official Warns

A former intelligence official slammed President Donald Trump‘s speech on election fraud allegations as “dangerous” — and said the commander in chief’s insistence that American elections are rigged “does the work of our adversaries.”

Speaking on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon threw cold water on Trump’s claims of foreign interference in American elections:

I think this was a dangerous speech, about an incredibly important topic with some really questionable remedies in mind.

So let me go through that.

Number one is we treat in since 2016, the intelligence community has been saying that foreign actors intended to influence our election for the purpose of undermining democracy — not undermining a president — for undermining democracy.

If you recall, the whole 2016 to 2021 first Trump term turned on us trying to say that in him interpreting it as it was our misinformation when we tried to share that information.

So this is not new that foreign actors try to influence our election. They do. And with the advent of the digital era, there are lots of things available to them. So this is not a new threat.

It is one he certainly knew of. He had an entire term to deal with it, and I don’t know how you can believe that the same community that told him about it, who was excoriated for it, then somehow didn’t tell him about further attempts. I think that’s hard.

But the other thing I want to say is I think he treats intelligence as though it’s a verdict, and it’s not. It is the beginning of a process. It is the way you start to ask questions.

So even if there are new data that are going to be released, that doesn’t prove anything. Intent is not activity. Activity is not impact and impact is not outcome.

And so to try and make a leap, even if there are new intelligence data that are worthy of being assessed, because most of the things that he will release has been assessed, you have to go through a process of asking ever tougher questions before you ever get to the notion of whether intent and attempts become outcome.

And I remind for 2016, 2020, and 24, we as a collective assess that they did not have impact on the outcome.

So to now jump in to go from intelligence to that impact, I think is dangerous because in a way, Kaitlan, it does the work of our adversaries for us. See, they don’t have to interfere. They just have to convince us to not trust our democracy.

Gordon served in her intelligence role from 2017 to 2019.

Watch above via CNN.

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