'Hoax Number 7!' Trump Targets New Russia Claims from Congress as DNI Post Unsettled
Republican Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia says he fully supports President Trump, but he doesn't want to be his new director of national intelligence.
Trump is looking for a new DNI, and there were rumors that he was considering Collins for the post. It all comes amid new claims via the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives that Russia is trying to help Trump win the 2020 election.
The DNI oversees all the US intelligence agencies. The president was reportedly angry with the current acting-DNI after being told that intelligence officials had informed a congressional briefing that Russia was intervening in the election on Trump's side.
Trump has imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia and rejects claims that Russia is helping him.
"Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do-Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa. Hoax number 7!” Trump tweeted.
Bernie Sanders was briefed by US officials that Russia is trying to help his presidential campaign, according to The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, the DNI’s chief election official, Shelby Pierson, told NPR that concerns about the elections aren't just about Russian interference. “We’re still also concerned about China, Iran, non-state actors, hacktivists and frankly - certainly for DHS and FBI - even Americans that might be looking to undermine confidence in the elections,” Pierson said.
Trump has appointed Richard Grenell as the acting-DNI but still doesn't have a permanent nominee for the post. Grenell is the current ambassador to Germany.
He explained in a previous interview with CBN News that he's not overly popular with Germany because of his staunch support of the president.
"In the short term, in the immediacy that changing the status quo is always messy, that people get comfortable and they don't want to change the status quo," he explained. "So I've got good perspective. I'm a cancer survivor and I have to tell you when you wake up and you've defeated cancer and you're looking at life from a different way, bad media coverage or critical media coverage or complainers from the side, that doesn't bother me."
Some conservatives support the Grenell appointment as a signal that the administration would be watching over, if not cleaning out, "deep state" intelligence officials who try to undermine the president.