U.S. Official to CNN’s Tapper: Getting White House to Focus on New Russian Interference is ‘Like Pulling Teeth’
CNN’s Jake Tapper reported Wednesday that a U.S. government source said officials try and avoid bringing up Russian interference with President Donald Trump, so much so that urging the administration to address the country’s continued meddling is like “pulling teeth.”
On Wednesday, New York Times reported that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney repeatedly urged former DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other advisors not to talk about Russian interference — past and future — in front of Trump. The report noted that Trump sees bringing up Russia’s meddling as tantamount to casting doubt on the legitimacy of his 2016 election victory.
Tapper responded to the report on Twitter, citing an unnamed government official who spoke to him and corroborated the Times story. The official said Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and DHS officials regularly call for greater focus on Russian meddling, but White House officials try to keep the topic away from Trump, so it’s “like pulling teeth to get the White House to focus the attention needed on” interference.
Confirming much of what’s in this @NYTimes scoop, a US Gov official tells me “it’s like pulling teeth to get the White House to focus the attention needed on” Russian election interference 1/https://t.co/8noNxGP1Rc
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
2/ The official says attempted Russian interference in US public affairs has continued and DHS officials and sr leaders “spent months and months trying to sound the alarm at the White House about the need to take foreign interference more seriously and to elevate the issue.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
3/ In addition, the official says the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats shared those views and felt that the Administration “was not being forward-leaning enough in notifying Congress and the American people.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
4/ Other than 1 or 2 principals’ meetings before the midterm elections, and one press conference where NSA Bolton, Nielsen, FBI director Wray, and NSA Dir Nakasone warned the public of election interference,…
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
5/… the USG official says “in general, senior White House staff felt it wasn’t a good idea to bring up issues related to Russia in front of the president.” …
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
6/ The USG official said DHS and other agencies made repeated requests to set up more Cabinet-level meetings on the subject and Bolton’s National Security Council rebuffed the requests. “They [DHS] kept getting the Heisman from Bolton and company,” the official says…
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
7/ The bigger concern, the official says, was post-midterms the need to sit down and figure out how to coordinate a better whole-of-govt response, “to get everyone out of their silos. But it was like pulling teeth to get the White House to focus the attention needed on this.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 24, 2019
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