ABC political analyst Matthew Dowd is never lacking movie analogies and had them ready for Thursday’s Good Morning America, gushing to anchor George Stephanopoulos that President Trump had gone “full hunt for Red October” trying to find the source of the anonymous New York Times op-ed written by someone in the White House who identified himself as part of the “Resistance.”
After a lengthy report from Cecilia Vega which ended with Vega dramatically stating that “allies” of the anonymous author were “circulating text messages overnight saying the ‘sleeper cells have awoken,’ Stephanopoulos turned to contributor Chris Christie and political analyst Matthew Dowd to discuss the White House’s response to the problem.
The anchor relayed to Christie that ABC’s reporting had verified that there was a group of people within the White House who saw themselves as “reining” the President in. Christie agreed that he had heard “the same things,” though he called in to question how the op-ed portrayed President Trump. “That’s not been my experience with the President,” he stated, arguing that the bigger problem was the leaks themselves and the image of an uncontained White House.
Turning to Dowd, Stephanopoulos gushed, “Matt, it is hard to overstate just how extraordinary this situation is right now.”
Dowd compared the situation to the Tom Clancy novel and movie, The Hunt for Red October, where Captain Ramius, a Soviet Navy commander of the submarine “Red October,” defects to the United States, and announces his plans in a letter. Dowd seemingly compared Trump to the USSR, seeking out the White House’s own defector, or “Captain Ramius:”
It's completely unprecedented. This is not a leak this is a torpedo within the boat shooting a hole in the side of the hull on the same team. This is not a leak. This is a massive hole. Now the president who wants to demonstrate that he isn't unhinged has gone on the hunt for Red October, full hunt for Red October looking for Captain Ramius to try to figure out who is at fault and who is doing this.
What is truly extraordinary is that ABC is finally giving credence to Trump’s longstated worries about a “deep state” within the White House that is trying to undo his agenda from within. While the media has long mocked Trump tweets on this idea, now apparently its fully rational when its their reporting making the case that there’s an internal rebellion within the White House.
Dowd went on to praise the leaker, saying they had a moral duty to stand on “the grounds of integrity and say what the president is doing and why it's bad for the country,” by testifying before Congress.
