There was a surprise appearance today at the White House, with the Director of National Intelligence appearing in the briefing room during the scheduled press briefing this afternoon. This comes as the Trump administration has tried to stamp out the furor over one conspiracy, with Director Tulsi Gabbard reopening another one that has caused her boss, President Trump, to seethe for years.
President Obama directed an intelligence community assessment to be created to further this contrived false narrative that ultimately led to a years-long coup to try to undermine President Trump's presidency.
It's an incredibly serious accusation by the Director of National Intelligence. But what was in these 46 pages is not dramatically different than what we've known for years. What was unclear is why this is being released now. The president just last night did make clear what he would like for his people to be talking about.
And you should mention that every time they give you a question that's not appropriate, just say, oh, by the way, Obama cheated on the election. You'll watch the camera turn off instantly.
In the briefing room today, the press secretary stepped in when I asked Director Gabbard about the timing of this release. What would you say to people who believe that you're only releasing these documents now to improve your standing with the president after he said that your intelligence assessments were wrong?
Who is saying that she would release this to try to boost her standing with the president, who has said that the president has publicly undermined her when it came to Iran?
He said she was wrong. He told me that she didn't know what she was talking about. That was on Air Force One.
The only people who are suggesting that the Director of National Intelligence would release evidence to try to boost her standing with the president are the people in this room who constantly try to sow distrust and chaos amongst the president's cabinet, and it is not working. I will just answer your question directly. I am with the president of the United States every day. He has the utmost confidence in Director Gabbard. He always has. He continues to. And that is true of his entire cabinet, who are all working as one team to deliver on the promises this president made.
Tonight, the Department of Justice has announced the formation of a so-called strike force to investigate what they say are potential legal steps against those that Director Gabbard called out by name today.
Now, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey and others, including their mouthpieces in the media, knowingly lied as they repeated the contrived narrative that was created in this January 2017 intelligence community assessment with high confidence, as though it were fact.
The person who you mentioned there was my next guest tonight, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. And it's great to have you here, Director Clapper. I mean, it was a remarkable appearance by someone who now holds the job that you previously held. And she's basically accusing the president that you served under and the people you served with, and you, of fabricating an intelligence assessment to damage President Trump. What's your response to that?
Well, it's patently false and unfounded. I was present at the meeting that everybody talks about, and I heard directly what President Obama asked us to do, which was to compile all the reporting and summarize what we had accumulated in the run-up to the election of 2016, put it in one document at various levels of classification, including a public release. And he wanted that done before the end of his administration. It was not to concoct intelligence or make it up or anything of the sort, which is absurd.
So he told you to investigate, but you're saying he did not tell you what conclusion to reach?
Because that's what they're essentially alleging here. She's saying the assessment used unclear, unknown sources, and that it was subject to unusual directives from President Obama, and also the allegation that it was a rushed assessment, essentially.
Well, yes, we had a short deadline to get it done because the president stipulated he wanted it completed before the end of his administration in order to be able to hand off a compilation of what the Russians had attempted to do to influence the outcome of the election in 2016. He wanted to be able to hand it to the then-President Trump and to the Congress.
There seemed to be some conflict over whether Russia could actually change voting machines, whether they did do that, and in terms of who Russia wanted to win the election. One thing that was a huge point of focus for Director Gabbard was that they're pushing back on the notion that Russia wanted Trump to win, that they did this to help Trump. Was that intelligence you believe sound, that finding that Russia was doing this in favor of Trump, first on the voting machines?
