Speaking today on CBS/VIACOM’S “Face the Nation,” 71-year-old former National Security Adviser John Bolton slammed 74-year-old President Donald Trump for saying he wasn’t briefed of alleged Russian mercenary payments to Taliban militants to harm U.S. troops. Trump and 61-year-old Vice President Mike Pence insisted they were not briefed on the alleged Russian plot, even though Bolton said that’s “just no the way the system works,” Bolton told “Face-the-Nation” host Margaret Brennan. Bolton’s tell-all book, “The Room Where it Happened,” was published June 23 over White House objections due to classified content, documenting Trump as an incompetent commander-in-chief, endangering the nation keeping him in power. Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, 55, also didn’t buy Trump’s story. Rice thinks one of Trump’s NSA briefers would have informed the president.
When the Russian bounty story broke at the New York Times June 26, it made Trump look very bad, like he endangered U.S. troops because of his negligence. But as more information came out about the story, it was clear the New York Times jumped the gun insisting Trump was briefed. But whether he was briefed or not, there’s no consensus in the intel community about whether or not the Kremlin paid Taliban militants to attack U.S. troops. On its face, it’s not too outrageous when you consider what the U.S. did the Soviet-backed Afghan government from 1979 to 1989, when the Kremlin threw in the towel. Former President Jimmy Carter and President Ronald Reagan let the CIA pay millions of dollars to Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden to battle the Soviet-backed government with his mujahedden fighters. So, when you consider possible Russian payback, it’s not inconceivable.
When it comes to whether or not Trump was actually briefed on the subject of Russian bounties paid to Taliban militants, it’s entirely speculative, something vehemently denied by the Kremlin. Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the allegations as pure fiction. “I don’t buy the story that he was never briefed,” former National Security Adviser Susan Rice told NBC’s “Meet the Press” today. “I believe that . . .when the informant first came to light in 2019, my successor, John Bolton, would have walked straight into the Oval Office, as I would have, and informed the president of this intelligence,” Rice said. Rice became infamous for ordering the unmasking in wiretapped conversations of 62-yea-old Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and 69-year-old former Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak. Preaching the choir at NBC, Rice doesn’t have much credibility when it comes to Trump.
Whatever the truth about Trump or Pence’s briefings on Russian mischief, if it makes Trump look bad four months before the election then it’s al worth it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80, and 77-year-old former Vice President and Democrat presumptive nominee Joe Biden jumped all over the New York Times Story, saying Trump engaged in more impeachable offenses. Bolton contends that however verified, the intel about Russian bounties paid the Taliban would have been presented to the president. “I will say this: All intelligence is distributed along the spectrum of uncertainty. And this intelligence in 2020 by the administration’s own admission, was deemed credible enough to give to our allies . . .” Bolton said, not buying that Trump and Pence were not briefed on the intel. Trump’s National Security Adviser [NSA] Robert O’Brien defended the president.
Whether the Russian bounty payments to the Taliban is true or not, it doesn’t matter to Democrats and the media looking for any excuse to discredit Trump before the election. With Pelosi and Biden denouncing Trump, nothing matters other than finding anything possible to besmirch the president. When New York Times couldn’t give its source to the story but then quoted Bolon, you knew the story was fishy. “The president’s career CIA briefer decided not to brief him because it was unverified intelligence,” said O’Brien. “She made that call and you know what, I think she made the right call, so I’m not going to criticize her. And knowing the facts that I know now, I stand behind that call.” O’Brien refuted the New York Times story that Trump was briefed, leaving the paper with more doubts about it’s anonymously-sources stories related to Trump’s Russian collusion and now Taliban bounties.
Selling over 800,000 books largely from free publicity on anti-Trump TV and radio shows, Bolton’s had a field day selling books. Trump’s enemies in the press seek any material to make the case against him with only four months before the 2020 presidential election. “What is particularly troubling, if true, is the latest information that they were . . . providing compensation for killing Americans. And this is the kind of thing that you go to the president on and say, “Look . . . we many not know everything on this, but a nuclear power is reportedly proving bounties to kill Americans,” Bolton said. Bolton can’t recall reports before he was fired Sept 10, 2019 about Russia paying bounties to the Taliban. Bolton knew in 2018 that Russia was paying the Taliban but said nothing to Trump. Bolton didn’t say whether he got his intelligence from the New York Times or other anti-Trump sources.
