Spy chief's move for Trump detente is derailed, via tweet
Source: www.politico.com
A top U.S. intelligence official tried this week to make peace with Donald Trump.
But the president-elect isn't quite ready for that just yet.
Hours after Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Trump spoke on the phone, each emerged with very different views of how the conversation had gone — different enough that one former CIA official said it appeared to be a "hardening of positions."
Clapper, in a conciliatory but cautious statement late Wednesday, said he'd expressed to Trump his "profound dismay" over leaks to the media about an unverified private dossier containing damaging material that Russia allegedly had gathered on the president-elect. Clapper insisted, however, that the intelligence community had not passed judgment on the credibility of the dossier itself. He also said he did not believe intelligence officials were behind the leaks.
On Thursday morning, Trump offered his own readout of the call, using his favorite medium: Twitter. The president-elect claimed the spy chief had dismissed the contents of the private dossier, not simply the leaks to the media. “James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts. Too bad!” Trump wrote.
The divergent takes on the conversation will likely exacerbate the extraordinary tensions between Trump and the intelligence community. Trump has frequently derided the intelligence community's work, while U.S. spy officials and others in the national security world have been worried about Trump's apparent fondness for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
The mood may calm down once Clapper and other spy leaders step down in a few days and Trump's nominees move into their new positions, but the episode is likely to linger in the intelligence world's psyche for years.
Vice President Joe Biden also talked of big consequences. Sitting down with reporters on Thursday, Biden said Trump’s frequent statements disparaging the U.S. intelligence community “play into the Russian narrative” of a weakened America that allies can’t rely on.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-james-clapper-leaked-report-233526
= new reply since forum marked as read
