Day 1,392: Amid purges and upheaval, national security team fears being fired for saying Biden’s name
They’re being forced to act out a charade where Trump won another term.
The dying weeks of Donald Trump’s time in office are getting more dangerous by the day.
While Trump and the GOP continue to float absurd and baseless conspiracy theories about a fair election that Trump lost, they are seeking absolute loyalists throughout the government.
Most concerning is what is going on to the intelligence sector as the nation prepares for a transition from Trump to Joe Biden in just 10 weeks. A purge was just carried out in the Pentagon, where top officials perceived as being insufficiently sycophantic to Trump were ousted. The State Department is preventing Biden from receiving messages intended for him from foreign leaders. And the president-elect is being iced out of vitally important intelligence briefings.
The national security team understands what is being done and is afraid to even mention Biden’s name for fear of being fired. Trump’s current (and fourth) National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, has made it clear fealty is as important as anything else at the moment.
Other officials familiar with the [Pentagon purge] noted that O’Brien has also pushed national security officials to publicly embrace the absurd Trump message that the election has not been certified and that there are still legal battles playing out across the country that could turn in the president’s favor.
“If you even mention Biden’s name … that’s a no go. You’d be fired,” one national security official said. “Everyone is scared of even talking about the chance of working with the [Biden] transition.”
Traditionally, intelligence sectors and political leaders avoid mixing as much as possible. It’s bad business for each. Once national security issues are looked at through a political lens, the information becomes tainted and inherently less trusted by a wing of the country.
Yet as Trump’s time in office winds down, each side appears to be actively looking to become more co-dependent. More, they’re all-but guaranteeing that Biden enters office with as large a handicap as possible in understanding the classified and nuanced geopolitical and national security issues facing the nation.
There’s no good reason for any of the above. It’s all about protecting Trump’s fragile ego, which pales in comparison to protecting the nation.
1,392 days in, 70 to go
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