The Deep State is after him!

In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, reports continued to flow in from multiple press outlets regarding the contacts that had occurred between the Trump campaign and the Russian government and its proxies. In January 2017, the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) was published, which was the comprehensive all-source report that announced the unanimous view of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) that Russia and its intelligence services had interfered in the 2016 election.

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At the CIA, as we watched all of this unfold, we issued an informal manifesto to the workforce aptly titled “A Call to Arms.”

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The Call to Arms required a whole-of-agency effort to counter the Kremlin. [...] We had the support of senior leadership and key allies in the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the Department of State.

The wild card was sitting in the Oval Office.

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In addition to interfering in U.S. elections, the Kremlin was attempting to kill dissidents abroad, fomenting unrest across the democracies of Europe, and pursuing a zero-sum policy when it comes to the United States, meaning anything that hurt the U.S. and its allies was good for Russia.

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Despite the politics that consumed Washington regarding the Mueller Report, by the spring of 2019, the CIA was in fact in a very strong position to push back against the Russian threat. This remains one of the great paradoxes of the Trump administration; that President Trump could have such a clear affinity for Putin and was publicly unwilling to fully accept the results of the ICA, yet his national security team, acting under his authority, was united in countering Russian malfeasance around the world.

Yet, since my retirement in June, two events have given me significant pause that our counter-Russia campaign faces new and even greater challenges. This concern is not due to the dedicated efforts of the U.S. national security establishment, nor the will of our allies across the globe, who also face an insidious threat from the Kremlin. My fear stems primarily from the president, who has, in a matter of several months, quite overtly set back the overall U.S. government effort with his unfortunate meddling in Ukraine, as well as the pullback of U.S. troops from Syria. Trump has provided Putin a massive gift on both fronts.

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Trump mocked former FBI Director James Comey and the Russia investigation in his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and former Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. To say this was inappropriate is an understatement. This was just the first of several high-level engagements, some with Putin himself, in which Trump’s coziness with the Russian leadership was on full display.

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All is not lost, however, as the Call to Arms remains a valid battle cry. In particular, Congress now has a responsibility to ensure that the U.S. government remains fully focused on the counter Russia effort. This should not be a Democrat vs Republican campaign issue. Political ideology should not be a factor at play. Instead, it will require sustained pressure from both sides of the political aisle on the White House due to a president whose affinity for Putin has now been weaponized in the debacles in both Ukraine and Syria.

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Congress—both Democrats and Republicans alike— must hold this president accountable and ensure we counter the Kremlin on a global scale, not ceding an inch. After all, the 2020 presidential election —with the Russian security services poised to act once again — is just around the corner.

  Marc Polymeropoulos @ Just Security

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.