What happened
Democrats warned this week that U.S.
election security was in jeopardy after
the nation’s top intelligence official was
ousted and replaced with a staunch loyal-
ist to President Trump, just days after the
House received an intelligence briefing
on Russia’s plans to interfere in the 2020
election. In the closed-door meeting with
the House Intelligence Committee, an aide
to acting Director of National Intelligence
Joseph Maguire told members of both
parties that Moscow was trying to tip the
election in Trump’s favor. Trump grew
angry after hearing of the briefing, The
New York Times reported, saying that Democrats would “weapon-
ize” the Russia intelligence. Soon after, the president announced that
he was replacing Maguire with Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambas-
sador to Germany and an outspoken defender of Trump. Grenell
quickly replaced Maguire’s No. 2 with Kashyap Patel, a former aide
to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who sought to discredit the 2016
Russia investigation. “The level of confidence that we can have that
we will get fully informed of threats to our elections has just gone
down to practically none,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).Sen. Bernie Sanders was also briefed by U.S. officials that Russia was
attempting to boost his campaign for the Democratic presidential
nomination, The Washington Post reported. The Vermont senator
condemned Moscow’s interference in the 2020 election, calling Rus-
sian President Vladimir Putin an “autocratic thug” and claiming that
“some of the ugly stuff on the internet attributed to our campaign”
may be coming from Russians and not Sanders supporters.What the editorials said
“Russia is at it again,” said the San Francisco Chronicle. And
there’s no mystery why Putin, having helped Trump win the White
House in 2016, wants him to stay put. During his three years in
office, the president has wreaked havoc across the U.S. government,
undermined NATO, and blasted holes in the international trade
system. “What’s a Russian dictator not to like?”Trump’s choice of Grenell is alarming, said The Washington Post.
The role of director of national intelligence was created after 9/to coordinate the work of the nation’s
17 spy agencies and join the dots on
disparate data and threats. Grenell—
a sycophant with no experience in
intelligence—is “manifestly unqualified
for the job.” He was a disaster as a dip-
lomat in Berlin, alienating Germans with
public attacks on government policies
and praise for far-right nationalist move-
ments across Europe. He’ll be similarly
damaging as intelligence chief and “can
be counted on to put the president’s per-
sonal and political interests above those
of national security.”What the columnists said
Despite Democrats’ “pearl clutching,” Grenell is a strong choice,
said Jim Talent in NationalReview.com. He’s a clear thinker with
years of international experience—he worked as U.S. spokesman at
the United Nations from 2001 to 2008—and the president’s trust
in him is a strong advantage. The hysteria over Russian meddling is
likewise overblown, said David Harsanyi, also in NationalReview
.com. The belief that a troll in Moscow can swing a presidential elec-
tion by posting amateurish memes online has fueled “the most de-
structive moral panic in American political life since the Red Scare.”Don’t underestimate the harm being done to the intelligence com-
munity, said Jane Harman in The New York Times. “With acting
Cabinet secretaries everywhere, the Departments of Homeland Se-
curity and State hollowed out,” and mass departures from the Na-
tional Security Council, “the judgment and experience about who
wants to attack us and where is basically gone.” If Grenell launches
an interagency purge, something many spooks fear, our intelligence
capabilities could be wrecked “for at least a generation.”Why would Putin want to help Sanders? asked Julia Ioffe in GQ.com.
Some analysts point to the democratic socialist’s noninterventionist
beliefs. But the truth is that “Bernie’s foreign policy positions really
don’t matter much.” For the Kremlin, helping Sanders achieves dual
goals. They believe Sanders will be a weak nominee whom Trump
can easily defeat. And just like Trump, Sanders is a divisive candidate
with a rabid base, useful “for starting a pan- American brawl.” Rus-
sia’s actual favorite candidate “is chaos.”Grenell: Now the U.S.’s top intelligence officialAP, Josef Holic
Russia’s new election interference campaign
... and how they were covered NEWS 5
It wasn’t all bad QA 62-year-old Marine veteran has shattered the Guinness
World Record for holding an abdominal plank— staying
in the position for an agonizing 8 hours, 15 minutes, and
15 seconds. That’s 14 minutes and 14 seconds longer than
the previous record holder, Mao Weidong from China.
George Hood of Naperville, Ill., spent 18 months training
for his feat, planking
every day for four
to five hours, and
doing 2,000 sit-ups,
700 push-ups, and
500 leg squats. “I’ve
taken the plank as
far as I can take it,”
said Hood, who cel-
ebrated his achieve-
ment by doing 75
push-ups.QWhen David Ayres had a kidney
transplant 15 years ago, the On-
tario native was sure his days playing
competitive hockey were over. But last
week, at age 42, the Zamboni driver
made his NHL debut. He was in the
stands at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena,
watching the Maple Leafs play the
Carolina Hurricanes, when Carolina’s
two netminders went out with injuries.
As the Maple Leafs’ designated emer-
gency goalie, Ayres put on a Hurri-
canes uniform and hit the ice. He gave
up two goals but then stopped eight
shots, helping the Hurricanes win 6-
and making him the oldest goalie in
NHL history to win his regular-season
debut. “It was awesome,” said Ayres.QA teenager traveled more than
4,000 miles from Canada to have
her first pint in the English pub
where she was born 18 years ago.
Isobel Casey’s mother unexpect-
edly went into labor at the Hartford
Mill pub in the village of Wyton on
Feb. 14, 2002, and gave birth next
to the ball pit for toddlers. The fam-
ily moved to Vancouver in 2006 but
always vowed to return to the pub
for the coming-of-age moment. Bar
staff at the Hartford Mill showed
Isobel, who hopes to study biology
at a British college, how to pour her
own pint to mark the occasion. Hood: King of the plank