What happened
President Trump this week tapped a skeptic of
the Russia investigation to become the director
of national intelligence amid renewed warnings
that the Kremlin is working to sabotage the
country’s vulnerable electoral infrastructure.
Trump nominated Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas
to oversee the nation’s network of 17 spy agen-
cies, forcing out Dan Coats. As DNI, Coats
frequently undercut the president’s attempts to
downplay Russian meddling, defending the in-
telligence community’s conclusion that Moscow
sought to tilt the 2016 election to Trump. Rat-
cliffe has signed on to the Republican theory it
was actually Hillary Clinton’s campaign that conspired with Russia
as a way to discredit Trump. (See Talking Points.) He received the
nomination just days after impressing Trump by attacking special
counsel Robert Mueller for stating that Trump hadn’t been exoner-
ated of a crime. “We need somebody strong that can really rein it
in,” Trump said of Ratcliffe. “Because as I think you’ve all learned,
the intelligence agencies have run amok. They’ve run amok.”
Ratcliffe, however, faces an uphill confirmation battle, with some
GOP senators skeptical about his lack of national security experi-
ence. Sen. Richard Burr, head of the Intelligence Committee, called
him “too political.” Burr’s committee revealed last week that
Russian hackers probed election systems in all 50 states in 2016,
perhaps finding vulnerabilities to exploit in 2020. Nevertheless,
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked votes on several
election security bills passed by Democrats in the House of Rep-
resentatives, prompting a storm of criticism, with #MoscowMitch
trending on Twitter. On the Senate floor, an angry McConnell
called suggestions that he wanted Russia to interfere again in 2020
“modern-day McCarthyism.”
What the editorials said
Republicans have issued an “all but open invitation to foreign
attacks on the next presidential election,” said the San Francisco
Chronicle. McConnell says the many election security bills he
blocked were “partisan legislation” designed to help Democrats.
But that’s nonsense. One of the bills would have spent $600 million
to upgrade voting machines to leave a “verifiable paper trail,” a
security measure against hacked vote totals. McConnell also killed a
bill requiring campaigns to notify authorities
if foreign nationals contact them. These ma-
neuvers suggest “Trump and McConnell are
not above any means of retaining power—
even the assistance of the nation’s enemies.”McConnell isn’t a “toady for Russia,” said
The Wall Street Journal. The Senate majority
leader has long opposed efforts to national-
ize election rules “that have been historically
managed by the states,” and he’s right. “A
national system would be easier to hack than
the systems of 50 states.” The Senate under
McConnell provided states with an addition-
al $380 million in election security funds just last year.What the columnists said
Ratcliffe is a “dangerous pick,” said Garrett Graff in Wired.com.
Unlike previous directors, Ratcliffe has virtually no national security
experience. He has boasted that he “put terrorists in prison” during
his brief stint as a U.S. attorney in the Bush administration, but
that’s a dramatic exaggeration: He was asked to review the causes of
a mistrial in a single terrorism-related case. He’s also a conspiracy-
monger, adopting the debunked rumor that the FBI had a “secret
society” to bring down Trump. The prospect of Ratcliffe standing
guard against Russian interference “should terrify Americans.”Relax, said Eli Lake in Bloomberg.com. The DNI is a “notoriously
weak” position. In theory, they set the budget priorities for the
intelligence community. In practice, they have no power to dictate
to the other agencies. “Without experience in the national security
state, persuading subordinate agencies is near impossible.” So even
if Ratcliffe turns out to be the lickspittle that critics fear, he’ll have
little impact on our counterintelligence efforts.McConnell is a far greater threat, said Dana Milbank in The
Washington Post. Indeed, he behaves like a “Russian asset.” He
has blocked bipartisan bills requiring internet companies to disclose
who pays for political ads and to impose sanctions on anyone who
attacks our elections. During the 2016 campaign, President Obama
asked him to issue a joint statement on Russian interference—and
McConnell refused, questioning the validity of the intelligence. “A
leader who won’t protect our country from attack is no patriot.”AP, Colleen TiddRatcliffe questioning Mueller last weekTHE WEEK August 9, 2019
4 NEWS The main stories...
The GOP’s skepticism on election interference
It wasn’t all bad QOne-year-old Joseph Tidd loves soccer, and he has a special
connection with his favorite player. Like Joseph, Orlando Pride
defender Carson Pickett, 25, was born with a partially formed
left arm without a hand. The two first met in April and quickly
bonded, playing peekaboo by pulling their shirt sleeves over
their arms. “They were best
friends after that,” says
mom Colleen. Joseph and
his parents are now regu-
lars at Pride games, and a
photo of a delighted Joseph
arm-bumping with Pickett
recently went viral online.
Such moments, says Tidd,
show Joseph that “he’s no
different than anyone else.
He’s going to be able to ac-
complish it all.”QFour American brothers had just
rolled out their towels on an Irish
beach when they heard a man
screaming in the water. His 6-year-
old daughter had drifted half a
mile out to sea on an inflatable
raft. Twins Declan and Eoghan
Butler, 18, and Alex Thomson, 24,
powered through the waves to her
and then took turns swimming on
their backs with the girl on their
chests. Walter Butler, 21, swam out
to meet them as they neared shore
and carried the girl the rest of the
way. Eoghan and Declan then
swam back out to save the father,
who was struggling in the water.
“It was intense,” Thomson said.QThe California condor once
seemed doomed to go the way
of the dodo and the passenger
pigeon. There were only 22 of the
scavengers left in the wild in 1982,
their population ravaged by lead
poisoning from hunters’ bullets.
The San Diego Zoo launched a
captive breeding program that
year, and a decade later, North
America’s largest flying bird was
reintroduced to the wild. The
1,000th California condor chick
since the program’s start has now
hatched, and the birds’ wild popu-
lation is today some 300 strong. Joseph and PickettIllustration by Fred Harper.
On the cover: Reps. John Ratcliffe, Devin Nunes, and Mitch McConnell.
Cover photos from Getty, Media Bakery, AP