Ripping 72-year-old President Donald Trump for ignoring Director of National Security Dan Coats’ Jan. 29 intel report, 78-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued to pile on Trump. Pelosi battled Trump during the 35-day record government shutdown, making sure Trump paid a draconic price in the polls. When you add up who won the PR battle during the shutdown, the House Speaker came out on top. Now Pelosi picked on Trump’s apparent skepticism of Coats’ Jan. 29 report saying that Russia, China and North Korea continue as mortal threats to the U.S. but Iran no longer presents a nuclear threat. Trump remembers all too well the intel community’s report on the threat posed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, insisting he possessed weapons of mass destruction, including biological and nuclear weapons. That’s the same intel community issuing the Jan. 29 report.
Pelso capitalized on Trump’s disagreements with Coats’ report, essentially saying he’s got Attention Deficit Disorder. Where was Pelosi when she voted for the war resolution against Iraq in 2002, leading to the March 20, 2003 Iraq War. With over 4,500 U.S. troops killed and over $1 trillion later, Trump has every right to question the intel community, even where it raises doubts about the various agencies. “One dismaying factor of it all is that the president just doesn’t seem to have the attention span or the desire to hear what the intelligence community has been telling him,” Pelosi told the Washington press. Pelosi’s committed to making Trump look bad, regardless of how it looks to foreign leaders. News today that the House-Senate Conference Committee has no intention of giving Trump his requested cash for a border wall spell problems ahead when a new Continuing Budget Resolution comes up for a vote.
Instead of recognizing legitimate disagreements in the intel report, Pelosi blamed the problems on Trump’s mental health or, at the least, his personal failings. When Democrats call Trump out for his poor attention, they’re trying to make the case that he’s not fit-for-office, something that replays incessantly on 24/7 cable news. Pelosi cites the Jan. 29 Coats’ report that fingers North Korea’s nuclear weapons and China’s cyber-security as threats to the U.S. Coats’ report calls Iran in compliance with the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPA}, the international deal that Trump cancelled May 8, 2018. Pelosi said that Trump either has attention problems or just doesn’t accept the intel community’s assessment. Trump has developed strong ties with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Chinese President Xi Jinping and to a lesser extent Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When you consider Chinese leaders meeting with Trump in the Oval Office today, it sure didn’t look like China poses a national security threat claimed in the Coats’ report. Working feverishly on a trade deal with Trump’s team, China looks to put past differences aside, not continue to engage cyber-espionage, copyright infringement or any other criminal activity. Trump’s intense negotiations with China, largely built around his tight relationship with Xi, isn’t reported in the mainstream press, largely because they’re afraid of giving Trump any credit. Trump, not Pelosi or any past Democrat of Republican president, could pull off a deal comparable, maybe more important, than President Richard Nixon’s China trade agreement in 1970. No, Pelosi hammers Trump for not accepting Coats’ limited national security assessment, from the same analysts that gave us the Iraq War.
Trump was especially critical of Coats’ report on the threat that Iran posed to the U.S. and Mideast. Coats’ report said that Iran was in compliances with the JCPA, despite the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors have not been given access to Iran’s sensitive military sites. Without open inspections of Iran’s military nuke sites, there’s no way the intel community can verify Iran’s covert nuke activity. Israel’s Mossad Security Service believes Iran continues to work on an operational nuclear weapon, including Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs]. “It’s important for the Republicans in Congress of recognize they have to weigh in with the president to say, ‘You can’t act without knowledge,’” said Pelosi. But Pelosi doesn’t have access to the same intel that Trump gets, especially about Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. She’s too busy playing politics to have any credibility.
Everything about Trump coming from Pelosi or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is about discrediting him before the 2020 elections. Nothing that’s said has any intent other that giving Democrats the best chance of making Trump a one-term president. Schumer urged Coats to “educate” Trump about what he doesn’t accept in the intel report. Democrats have been fixated since Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Nov. 4, 2016 on proving Trump colluded with Russia to win the election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been unable to prove in nearly two years the Democrats’ theory. “The intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naïve when it comes to the dangers of Iran,” Trump tweeted. “They are wrong,” infuriating the intel community, but, more importantly, foiling the Democrat Party’s Russian narrative.
