So much for CNN's declaration of "facts first." The news outlet that pompously calls themselves “the most trusted name in news” threw that out the window on Monday when their national security analyst and Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper suggested that President Trump was being treated like an intelligence asset by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During Clapper’s appearance on CNN’s The Lead he was asked by Jim Sciutto, another Obama administration flack CNN had on the payroll, about if Trump’s description of Russia and China as rivals and his desire to find collaborative efforts were “a contradictory message.”
Clapper’s response was his wild conspiracy theory about the U.S. President. “Well, it is to me. I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that's what he's doing with the President,” he told Sciutto.
“You're saying that Russia is handling President Trump as an asset,” Sciutto followed up, with the sound of excitement in his voice. “That seems to be -- that's the appearance to me,” Clapper answered before he droned on about the history of U.S.-Russian relations in terms of counter-terrorism operations.
Sciutto was still fixated on Clapper’s baseless smear and wanted him to talk more about it. “I just want to be clear here though; you’re saying that Russia is treating the president of the United States as an asset?”
“I'm saying this figuratively,” Clapper claimed, appearing to walk it back. But he immediately began to back up his original assertion by analyzing how Putin interacts with Trump:
I think you have to remember Putin's background. He's a KGB officer. That's what they do. They recruit assets. And I think some of that experience and instincts of Putin has come into play here in his managing of a pretty important account for him, if I could use that term, with our president.
It's worth noting that Clapper is an intelligence spook just as Putin was. When he was the DNI, he lied in testimony to Congress when he was asked about what he knew regarding the government’s domestic spying program, which collects information from everyone in the U.S. He told Congress he didn’t know anything about such a program. But when the program was later exposed via leaks, he claimed he simply forgot about the program’s existence.
This off-the-wall analysis by CNN came the day after their wannabe media pope, Brian Stelter began his Sunday show, Reliable Sources, by railing against Fox News for being pro-Trump ‘propagandists’ and suggested they’re state media. If they’re going to claim Fox News is saying outrageous things, then they can’t be pushing their own.
Transcript below:
CNN
The Lead
December 18, 2017
4:27:39 PM EasternJIM SCIUTTO: You heard the President's speech today, calls out Russia and China, describes them as rival powers – rival powers to the U.S., but also says he wants to build a great partnership with them and had all this friendly stuff to say about his phone calls with Vladimir Putin this week. Is that a contradictory message?
JAMES CLAPPER: Well, it is to me. I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that's what he's doing with the President.
SCIUTTO: You're saying that Russia is handling President Trump as an asset?
CLAPPER: That seems to be -- that's the appearance to me. So, you know, we've shared intelligence with the Russians for a long time. We've always done that. Although in my experience with them has been pretty much of a one-way street, where we provide them intelligence and we don't get much back. And oddly enough, my first exposure to that was in the early '90s when I served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and we were trying to engage the Russians on all places of North Korea. And didn't get much back from them.
So, I think what we did is the right thing. Certainly when people's lives are at risk that we do have a duty to warn. So the intelligence community, CIA did the right thing here and I thought in a rather theatric gesture of a phone call to thank President Trump for something that, kind of, goes on below the radar and is not all that visible.
SCIUTTO: I just want to be clear here though; you’re saying that Russia is treating the president of the United States as an asset?
CLAPPER: I'm saying this figuratively. I think, you have to remember Putin's background. He's a KGB officer. That's what they do. They recruit assets. And I think some of that experience and instincts of Putin has come into play here in his managing of a pretty important account for him, if I could use that term, with our president.
(…)
