The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series chronicling the eschaton and the fall of the Republic.
207,269 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S.
31 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY
Politico
Trump’s ex-national security adviser says president is ‘aiding and abetting’ Putin
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Thursday that … Donald Trump is “aiding and abetting” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to sow doubt about the American electoral system.
The stern warning from McMaster, who Trump handpicked to lead the White House National Security Council in 2017, came in an interview on MSNBC, after he was asked whether he agreed that the president posed the greatest threat to U.S. election integrity.
“I agree that he is aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts by not being direct about this, right? By not just calling out Putin for what he’s doing,” McMaster said.
“You know, Putin gets away with, I mean, literally murder or attempted murder … because people don’t call him out on it,” he added. “And so they are able to continue with this kind of fire hose of falsehood, to sow these conspiracy theories. And we just can’t be our own worst enemies.”
Trump requires food aid boxes to come with a letter from him
The Agriculture Department last week began mandating that millions of boxes of surplus food for needy families include a letter from … Donald Trump claiming credit for the program.
The USDA’s $4 billion Farmers to Families Food Box Program has distributed more than 100 million boxes to those in need since May, with the aim of redirecting meat, dairy and produce that might normally go to restaurants and other food-service businesses. But organizations handing out the aid complain the program is now being used to bolster Trump’s image a month before a high-stakes election — and some even have refused to distribute them.
“In my 30 years of doing this work, I've never seen something this egregious,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks. "These are federally purchased boxes.”
Houston Chronicle
Gov. Abbott forces Harris County to close 11 mail ballot drop-off sites, leaving just one
Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday declared that counties can designate only one location to collect completed mail ballots from voters, forcing Harris County to abandon 11 sites set up for that purpose.
Abbott’s proclamation also said counties must allow poll watchers to “observe any activity conducted at the early voting clerk’s office” related to the delivery of marked ballots. He said the measure was designed to improve ballot security. […]
“Republicans are on the verge of losing, so Governor Abbott is trying to adjust the rules at the last minute,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement.
“This isn’t security, it’s suppression,” Hidalgo said in a statement. “Mail ballot voters shouldn’t have to drive 30 miles to drop off their ballot or rely on a mail system that’s facing cutbacks.”
Trump has enough support from Latinos to win Texas, study finds
Donald Trump has enough support from Latino voters to win Texas, but Joe Biden could pull off an upset if he wins two-thirds of the Latino vote in the state — something Hillary Clinton came close to doing in 2016 — a new analysis finds.
The analysis, by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, says Trump currently holds enough support from Latino voters, 41 percent, to stave off a loss in the state. On the other hand, a poll released this week found otherwise, showing Biden with 66 percent of the Latino vote.
“A surge in Hispanic support for Biden could turn the state blue,” policy foundation President Jason Villalba, a former Republican state representative from Dallas, said in a statement. “Both campaigns should be taking Hispanic Texans very seriously right now.”
Postindustrial
In Western Pennsylvania, elections officials are deluged by requests from voters
Some voters in Western Pennsylvania who are struggling with mail-in and absentee voting, registering to vote, and other election-related issues say they’re finding little help from election offices, which are overburdened with extra work.
In response, state and local officials in this key swing state said, in essence: We’ve got this.
Voters in Allegheny and Fayette counties in the last week reported issues with the state voter registration website, getting calls answered or returned by local election officials, or even getting answers about volunteering as poll workers for the Nov. 3 election.
Salon
Uber-funded ballot measure in California would create "permanent underclass of workers," expert says
Proposition 22 — the Uber- and Lyft-funded ballot measure that will appear on California ballots this November — … is written to keep these companies' contractors from achieving benefits or a stable, salaried job, would require a seven-eighths majority of state legislators in both state chambers in order to be overturned — such a difficult threshold to meet that experts say it would be effectively permanent. […]
Yet since AB5 passed through California's state legislature, Uber and Lyft have refused to comply; instead, they chose to pour over $180 million into the astroturf campaign for Proposition 22. Similar gig worker-reliant companies have chipped into the campaign, too. DoorDash has donated $47.5 million; Instacart has donated $27.5 million, and Postmates has contributed a little over $10 million. […]
"They have basically operated as though the law does not apply to them," Ken Jacobs, the chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, told Salon. "And I think that signals to other states around the country, 'Don't try to enforce your laws because we have the political power and resources to defeat you if you do.'"
Trump's plot to steal the election can be defeated: Here are five things you can do to help
Trump can't win a free and fair election, and he knows it. So he's doing everything in his power to keep Americans from having one. As the New York Times reported on Thursday morning, Republicans, in their efforts to save Trump, are using every dirty trick in the book to stop people from voting.
Times are scary. It's understandable to feel demoralized, but it is more important than ever not to give into that feeling. Trump and Republicans want you to feel despair. Despair leads to inaction, which makes it a lot easier for Trump to pull this off.
Instead, it's time to get angry, and to use that anger to propel you into action. Trump may want to steal the election, but wanting isn't having. He can be defeated. He will likely be defeated — as long as everyone does their part to stop him.
ProPublica
The Kushners’ Freddie Mac Loan Wasn’t Just Massive. It Came With Unusually Good Terms, Too.
Despite a history of underperforming properties, Kushner Companies received a near-record sum from a government-backed lender. Should it default, taxpayers could be forced to foot much of the bill. The agency says politics played no role.
After the news broke in May of last year that government-sponsored lending agency Freddie Mac had agreed to back $786 million in loans to the Kushner Companies, political opponents asked whether the family real estate firm formerly led by the president’s son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, had received special treatment.
“We are especially concerned about this transaction because of Kushner Companies’ history of seeking to engage in deals that raise conflicts of interest issues with Mr. Kushner,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tom Carper, D-Del., wrote to Freddie Mac’s CEO in June 2019.
The loans helped Kushner Companies scoop up thousands of apartments in Maryland and Virginia, the business’s biggest purchase in a decade. The deal, first reported by Bloomberg, also ranked among Freddie Mac’s largest ever. At the time, the details of its terms weren’t disclosed. Freddie Mac officials didn’t comment publicly then. Kushner’s lawyer said Jared was no longer involved in decision-making at the company. (He does continue to receive millions from the family business, according to his financial disclosures, including from some properties with Freddie Mac-backed loans.)
Los Angeles Times
Trump Supreme Court pick already ruled on pending Obamacare case — in a moot exercise
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, … Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, has already weighed in on one of the most significant and controversial cases it is scheduled to consider this fall — albeit in a mock exercise.
And, contrary to what many Democrats fear, her position on the moot court that considered the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, went mostly against the Trump administration’s stance.
One week after the election, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case in which Republican officials of Texas and a coalition of other conservative states have asked the justices to strike down the entire law. The Trump administration has joined them. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, joined by officials of a number of Democratic-led states, is defending the law.
Newsom vetoes bill that would have further protected journalists covering protests
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have further protected journalists covering demonstrations from physical or verbal obstruction by a law enforcement officer.
The state Senate bill proposed to protect “a duly authorized member of any news service” from intentional assault, interference or obstruction from law enforcement. The bill also would have protected a journalist from citation over “the failure to disperse, a violation of a curfew, or a violation of paragraph” while reporting in an area closed to the public. […]
The governor’s veto message said that media access is “essential to a functioning democracy,” but he took issue with the definition of a “duly authorized representative of the news media,” calling it too broad a phrase that could allow “white nationalists, extreme anarchists or other fringe groups with an online presence” to be protected by the bill.
Charleston Post and Courier
Ruling on South Carolina absentee ballots being appealed to US Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court could decide whether South Carolinians voting by mail this fall must get a witness signature.
The state Republican Party and S.C. Election Commission appealed Thursday to the nation’s highest court, asking the justices to resolve the case as soon as possible to erase questions about voting that’s already begun.
“Each passing day increases the risk that ballots will be returned” that mistakenly rely on earlier court rulings and end up not getting counted, reads the request, which notes state law has required a signature since 1953.
The appeal follows a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order Wednesday maintaining a lower court ruling that voters don’t need a witness signature for absentee ballots that are already starting to go out to South Carolina voters who applied for them.
According to the appeal, more than 150,000 have already been mailed.
Axios
Doomsday has arrived for tens of thousands of workers
Federal coronavirus aid for airlines expires on Thursday with no renewal in sight, meaning massive layoffs for the industry aren't far behind.
The big picture: Airline workers aren't alone on the unemployment line. Oil companies, tire manufacturers, book publishers and insurers are among those that have announced tens of thousands of layoffs. Federal aid through the CARES Act earlier this year delayed most layoffs — until now.
Amazon says over 19,800 employees contracted coronavirus
Amazon recorded 19,816 presumed or confirmed COVID-19 cases across its roughly 1.37 million Amazon and Whole Foods Market front-line employees in the U.S. between March 1 and Sept. 19, according to data released by the company on Thursday.
The Oregonian
Oregon Health Authority says don’t trick or treat this year
The Oregon Health Authority announced Thursday that it is recommending Oregonians avoid “traditional door-to-door trick or treating and ‘Trunk or Treat’” events this year.
“If you dress up in a costume, be careful to plan a costume that allows you to wear a face covering,” said State Health Officer Dr. Dean Sidelinger in a press release. “Halloween masks will not protect you or others from coronavirus. Wearing a cloth or disposable face mask that fits snugly and covers your mouth and nose is still required while wearing a costume, no matter how scary or silly your costume is.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees: trick or treating is a high-risk activity.
The Seattle Times
Proud Boys in Northwest say Trump’s callout has attracted recruits
More than an hour into Tuesday’s presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace wanted to know if … Donald Trump would denounce white supremacists. His response cast a global spotlight on the Proud Boys — a right-wing group with a dozen chapters in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, where they are known for a readiness to brawl with antifa — anti-fascist — demonstrators. Trump’s remarks also brought a surge in inquiries from potential recruits.
“I already have gotten 25 emails just this morning from people asking about what they have to do to become members,” said Rex Fergus, a Northwest spokesman for the group, which held a rally last Saturday in Portland.
Bloomberg
Trump Aide Hope Hicks Tests Positive for Coronavirus Infection
Hope Hicks, one of … Donald Trump’s closest aides, has tested positive for coronavirus infection, according to people familiar with the matter.
There was no indication that the president has contracted the virus, the people said. Hicks traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate on Tuesday. […]
Hicks is the latest person in Trump’s orbit to contract the virus, which has infected more than 7.2 million Americans and killed more than 200,000. Other senior staff have contracted Covid-19 and recovered including National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, but few spend as much time with the president as Hicks, whose service dates to his 2016 campaign.
Trump’s Taxes Give Biden Blueprint to Fix System Rigged for Rich
Money can arrive in many forms—paychecks, invoices paid, dividends from a business you own, a gift from Dad, a loan from Mom, rising property values or stock prices. Even non-monetary perks like housing, plane rides, and haircuts have a cash value. Much of this income—and let’s call it all income, though the lawyers might quibble—never gets taxed. With your paycheck, of course, the government takes its cut immediately. Plumbers and Uber drivers who don’t set aside money for the Internal Revenue Service will regret it. But for others, different rules apply.
In a now infamous—though hardly unique—example, Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and the same amount in 2017, his first year as president, according to a report by the New York Times, which obtained copies of his tax returns. Trump reported massive losses from his businesses, effectively wiping out all income tax owed in 10 of the previous 15 years as well. That’s despite a net worth estimated at $2.7 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Rich Americans and a small army of sophisticated advisers have perfected the art of tax avoidance: Wealthy families set up complex trusts, private pensions, and life insurance schemes to lower their taxes. Silicon Valley startups valued in the billions of dollars grab tax breaks meant for small businesses. Multinational corporations shift profits to overseas tax havens. Add it up and, according to one estimate, billionaires now pay lower overall tax rates than working-class Americans hovering above the poverty line.
Reuters
Brazil's Amazon rainforest suffers worst fires in a decade
Fires in Brazil’s Amazon increased 13% in the first nine months of the year compared with a year ago, as the rainforest region experiences its worst rash of fires in a decade, data from space research agency Inpe showed on Thursday.
Satellites in September recorded 32,017 hot spots in the world’s largest rainforest, a 61% rise from the same month in 2019.
In August last year, surging fires in the Amazon captured global headlines and prompted criticism from world leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron that Brazil was not doing enough to protect the rainforest.
China's U.S. envoy says U.S.-China relations must be put on right track
The Chinese ambassador to Washington said on Thursday that China’s relations with the United States were facing “severe difficulties” and the two countries should lose no time in putting them on the right track.
Ambassador Cui Tiankai told a virtual ceremony to mark China’s National Day that Beijing was willing to develop relations with Washington with “goodwill and sincerity.”
“The China-U.S. relationship is experiencing severe difficulties rarely seen in the past 41 years of diplomatic ties,” Cui said.
He said there were those who were trying to stoke up economic decoupling of the two countries and “incite ideological confrontation and a new Cold War.”
Der Spiegel
[…] Alexei Navalny, 44, is Russia's most prominent opposition politician. Following the attempt on his life on August 20 in the Siberian city of Tomsk, however, he is now squarely in the international spotlight. German Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened for him to be allowed to leave Russia for treatment in Germany. Because he was poisoned with a substance that can essentially only come from state-run laboratories in Russia, the question of Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal responsibility is one that many around the world are asking. It's not the first time that a Russian opposition politician was to be killed, but it is the first time that the circumstances seem to so clearly point at the Kremlin.
The interview with DER SPIEGEL is the first that Navalny has given since the attack. He is alert at the meeting and he remembers many things - and yet the impact of the poisoning is still clear. Scars on his neck show where he was hooked up to a ventilator. When he pours water from the bottle into his glass, it is obvious that it requires effort and he has to use both hands. But he refuses assistance. "My physical therapist says I should try to do everything myself," he says. […]
Navalny: It is important to me that this interview appears in the German press. I have never been closely associated with Germany. I don't know anyone here. I didn't know a single politician. And yet it turned out - you see, my voice is trembling, I have become so emotional - that German politicians and Angela Merkel have taken an interest in my fate and saved my life. The doctors at Charité saved my life a second time and, more importantly, they gave me back my personality. So, the first thing I want to say is: I feel a tremendous gratitude to all Germans. I know it sounds a bit overblown, but Germany has become a special country for me. I had few connections here before and only visited Berlin for the first time three years ago! And then so much human compassion from so many people.
NPR News
Fewer People May Vote By Mail Than Expected. That Could Mean Election Day 'Chaos'
COVID-19 is still spreading across the United States, but you would barely know it by how people are planning to vote this year.
As the pandemic took hold in the spring, voting experts predicted a national shift toward mail or absentee voting. Some experts predicted as many as 70% of all votes cast could be by mail, as was the case in Wisconsin's April primary.
But over the past few months, fears about the Postal Service's reliability, as well as … Trump's constant railing against mail voting security, have meant fewer and fewer people planning to use the method to vote — to the point that officials now worry there may be such a crush of people who want to vote on Election Day it could lead to unsafe crowding and excessively long lines.
Kids In New York City Go Back To School For In-Person Classes
New York City, with its 1.1 million students, became the first big city school district in the country to return to in-person classes this week. After the start of the school year was delayed twice, students came back in phases: pre-K and students with significant disabilities last week, followed by elementary students Tuesday, and middle and high school students today. Just over half of the city's students will be attending school on a hybrid schedule, attending one or two days a week in person, in order to preserve social distancing. The remainder are 100% remote.
"With everything going on, we were back-and-forth on our decision a lot," said parent Mark Lopez, who dropped off his daughter for her first day at P.S. 84 in Williamsburg. "But when we saw all the precautions in place, it made us feel a little safer."
BBC News
What the data tells us about coronavirus in India
India is on the verge of reporting 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus - a grim toll that ranks it third in the world behind only the US and Brazil.
September was the nation's worst month on record: on average 1,100 Indians died every day from the virus. Regional anomalies continue as some states report far higher deaths than others - a sign, experts say, that the pandemic is still working its way through the country.
The rolls used in Subway's hot sandwiches contain too much sugar to be considered bread, according to Ireland's Supreme Court. Ireland's highest court made the ruling in a case about how the bread is taxed.
An Irish franchisee of the US company had claimed it should not pay VAT on the rolls it uses in heated sandwiches. But the court ruled that because of the level of sugar in the rolls they cannot be taxed as bread, which is classed as a "staple product" with zero VAT.
Under Ireland's VAT Act of 1972, ingredients in bread such as sugar and fat should not exceed 2% of the weight of flour in the dough.
CNN
Greenland's ice sheet is melting as fast as at any time in the last 12,000 years, study shows
[…] The rate of melting we're seeing today already threatens to exceed anything Greenland has experienced in the last 12,000 years[, according to a new study published in the journal Nature].
Over the last two decades, Greenland's ice sheet has melted at a rate of roughly 6,100 billion tons per century, a rate approached only during a warm period that occurred between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago.
"We know there's a lot of year-to-year variability, so what we were interested in doing is capturing the more meaningful trends over decades and maybe up to a century," said Jason Briner, a professor of geology at the University at Buffalo and the lead author of the study. "And when you do that, and think about the direction that Greenland is heading this century, it's pretty clear we're in quite anomalous times."
CBC Radio
Relatives, experts call for accountability in wake of Joyce Echaquan's death
The cousin of an Indigenous woman who recorded health-care staff insulting her as she was dying in a Quebec hospital says firing the nurse who treated her relative is not enough.
"We need to have more … respect for our nation," Alice Echaquan told The Current's Matt Galloway.
"Stand up together, all of us, and [say], that's enough. We are going to do something to stop the [racism]."
Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman from Manawan, Que., died on Monday — two days after being admitted with stomach pains to the Centre hospitalier de Lanaudière in Joliette, Que., about 70 kilometres north of Montreal and a three-hour drive from her community.
From the moment she arrived, the mother of seven began recording her experience, capturing staff members hurling insults and foul language toward her in a Facebook Live video. Joyce's relatives told Radio-Canada she had a history of heart problems and felt she was being given too much morphine.
The Guardian
Brexit: EU launches legal action against UK for breaching withdrawal agreement
The EU has launched legal action against the UK after Boris Johnson failed to respond to Brussels’ demand that he drop legislation that would overwrite the withdrawal agreement and break international law.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, announced that the UK had been put on formal notice over the internal market bill tabled by the prime minister last month.
Meanwhile, EU officials downplayed hopes that ongoing trade and security talks were closing in on solutions to the most contentious issues.
Rights groups appalled as Trump cuts US refugee admissions to record low
Donald Trump’s administration has announced plans to let only 15,000 refugees resettle in the United States in the 2021 fiscal year that began on Thursday, setting another record low in the history of the modern refugee program and prompting outrage from civil rights groups.
The US state department said the ceiling reflects the Trump administration’s prioritizing of the “safety and wellbeing of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”
Trump, seeking re-election on 3 November, has slashed refugee admissions every year since taking office in 2017.
The Washington Post
Mixing of the planet’s ocean waters is slowing down, speeding up global warming, study finds
The layers of the world’s oceans aren’t mixing like they used to due to climate change, potentially speeding up how fast the planet will warm in the coming decades. This new finding, contained in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, finds that the reduction in the mixing of ocean layers is piling up warm water near the surface while cutting back on the circulation of cold, deep water.
The reduced up and down mixing is expected to have sweeping implications beyond just accelerating global warming. It is projected to increase energy available to hurricanes and other storms, reduce essential nutrients for fish in upper ocean layers and diminish the oceans’ ability to store carbon, among other impacts.
The study assesses how the separation of seawater layers, known as stratification, has changed based on new temperature, salinity and density data. It finds substantial shifts have occurred as the ocean has absorbed more heat in the upper 6,500 feet of water.
Kamala Harris’s sorority sisters are mobilizing an army of support
Shortly after Sen. Kamala D. Harris became Joe Biden’s running mate, the Democratic National Committee began receiving thousands of donations in the precise amount of $19.08, without any obvious explanation.
Soon, it became clear that the donations were a tribute to Harris (Calif.) from fellow members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, a Black women’s organization founded in 1908. As of Friday, the DNC had received 14,408 donations in that amount, for a total approaching $275,000, and they continue to arrive.
The contributions are a sign of how AKA, a close-knit network of Black women nationwide, has mobilized behind Harris. AKA cannot make official endorsements, so the work is less overt — members show up at Harris events, give money, organize get-out-the-vote efforts, network on how best to support the cause.
Vox
After months of working with Facebook to safeguard the 2020 election, several national Democratic Party leaders say the company has failed to meet promises to stem the tide of misinformation spreading on its platform. If the election’s results are contested after November 3 — which is an acute concern since a surge in mail-in ballots is expected to delay the count and … Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power — they worry that Facebook is utterly unprepared to prevent people from using its platform to spread chaos.
Recode spoke with four sources with direct knowledge of ongoing monthly private conversations about election misinformation between several senior Democratic party committee leaders and senior members of Facebook’s policy team, including VP and director-level staff. These sources spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions for discussing private talks.
Democratic sources told Recode that monthly calls with Facebook that started in May have been “maddening” and have left party members “banging their head against the wall.” They say Facebook employees in these meetings — while seemingly well-intentioned — have failed to stop the spread of misinformation attacks against Democratic candidates, been reluctant to share information about extremist groups encouraging voter suppression, and appeared “flat-footed” in their plan for dealing with conflicting information about the election results.
Did America’s top spy release Russian disinformation to help Trump?
It sure looks like the guy who’s in charge of the entire US intelligence community is selectively declassifying unverified intelligence to make Democrats look bad ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Even worse: The intelligence, at least in the minds of some critics, may actually be Russian disinformation.
In a letter sent on Tuesday to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — a former Republican congressman from Texas and a staunch ally of the president — declassified information relating to the FBI’s probe into possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Ars Technica
Senate votes to issue subpoenas to Facebook, Twitter, Google CEOs
The Senate Commerce Committee this morning voted unexpectedly to issue subpoenas to the heads of Facebook, Twitter, and Google to compel them to testify in a hearing—most likely before Election Day.
The committee agreed in a unanimous, bipartisan vote to require Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to appear (virtually) after none of the three executives had agreed by today to appear voluntarily.
Zuckerberg and Pichai, along with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee earlier this year. That hearing, nominally about antitrust issues, instead squeezed two completely disparate realities together into one small room, as Democratic members primarily asked about competition issues and Republican members primarily complained about the Internet's alleged (and unproven) "bias" against conservative voices.
The Atlantic
The Most Illuminating Moment of the Debate
The moments after your first child is born are humbling and overwhelming, the emotional equivalent of staring directly into the sun. You realize that you are suddenly responsible for a human life that you helped create, a sliver of two souls smuggled into another body, a person you will love and protect desperately for the rest of your life.
Shortly after Donald and Ivana Trump’s son was born, however, the future president had an unusual concern for a parent: What if this kid grows up and embarasses me?
“What should we name him?” Donald asked, according to Ivana’s memoir, Raising Trump. When Ivana suggested Donald Jr., the real-estate heir responded, “What if he is a loser?”
What Else Does the CIA Know About Trump and Russia?
In a new book, former CIA Director John Brennan traces how he came to believe that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. There’s still more about Russia that worries him. […]
There’s a moment in Brennan’s new book, Undaunted, that should be jaw-dropping, but at this point fits into the Twilight Zone of the past four years. Briefing the top Donald Trump team a few days before the inauguration, going through the CIA’s assessment that Vladimir Putin had ordered the election tampering, Brennan gets an uneasy feeling. Trump seemed less disturbed by the briefing than interested in probing for how Brennan knew what he knew, what the sources were. “This deeply troubled me, as I worried what he might do with the information he was being given,” Brennan writes.