Fox News host Shepard Smith all but directly accused Donald Trump of siding with Russia over his own country in a blistering commentary following yesterday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Russian hacking.
Smith noted this exchange between Senator Lindsey Graham and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper:
GRAHAM: Do you think a lot happens in Russia big that he doesn’t know about?
CLAPPER: Not very many.
GRAHAM: Yeah, I don’t think so either.
CLAPPER: Certainly none that are politically sensitive in another country.
“I mean, we don’t need some sort of dictionary to figure out what he’s saying,” Smith said about Clapper. “He’s saying Putin knew this, Putin directed this. This was all about Putin.”
“And then Lindsey Graham got up there and spoke to the president-elect through the cameras and said, 'Don’t do this.’” Smith continued. “Republican and Republican and intelligence agencies versus the incoming president of the United States. That’s where we are.”
Smith went on to note that Clapper, himself, took a swipe at Trump for going beyond a healthy skepticism of intelligence into “disparagement.” “He’s just said, ‘Mr. President, you’ve disparaged us,’ which he has,” Smith added.
Then Smith delivered his knock-out punches:
SMITH: So it’s the intelligence community and its leaders and all 17 agencies plus the FBI and the Senate Armed Services Committee against the president-elect. Donald Trump has suggested United States intelligence officials are not certain that Russia carried out the attacks and that they have been trying to build a case against Russia ahead of his briefing tomorrow. But Clapper minced no words. He is certain, positive.
Back in 2010, Donald Trump suggested that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a disgrace and [unintelligible] the death penalty or something for him. He said that to Fox News’ own Brian Kilmeade. But a lot has changed since then.
Yesterday, the president-elect quoted Assange on Twitter and his claim that the stolen Democratic emails did not come from the Russians. Donald Trump took sides. The president-elect is with Julian Assange who, if he walked out the door [of the Ecuadoran embassy] would be arrested over the $62 billion a year American intelligence agencies and all their leaders. And then today, Trump said he’s a big fan of intelligence. It’s what he said. Apparently not this intelligence. He’s made that clear. Because this intelligence says that Vladimir Putin and the Russians tried meddling with the U.S. election to help him, Donald Trump, get elected.
But why? Does Donald Trump not trust the intelligence agencies? Or is this a thank you to the Russians for all their help? We do not know. But it’s one of those.
Wow.
Watch it below, from the January 5, 2017 Shepard Smith Reporting, via Raw Story.
Putin: Making America great again! ;^)
For an American President to oppose the Intelligence Community like this is unprecedented. The President relys on those people for making informed judgements. Especially the NSA.