FBN's Maria Bartiromo and House Intel Chair Rick Crawford used the Democrats' attempt to oust Trump's unqualified pick for DNI head as an excuse to revive their revisionist history of Trump's Russiagate corruption.
As we already discussed here, Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has found an ingenious way to pressure Trump to remove his dangerous appointment of Bill Pulte as acting head of the Director of National Intelligence, which is to block the GOP’s beloved FISA bill if Pulte is not gone.
Crawford was asked about the move on this Thursday's Mornings with Maria, and with a big assist by Bartiromo, tried to pretend the Russiagate investigation was some hoax before accusing John Brennan and James Clapper of orchestrating some sort of a "coup" against Trump.
BARTIROMO: What's your take on Bill Pulte as DNI?
CRAWFORD: Well, first off, the fact that these Democrats over in the Senate are wringing their hands about a potential nominee — he's an acting DNI. That's what the president has stated. So it's not as though he needs their opinion, because he's acting. He's not asking for him to be confirmed.
Let me put a little historic context here. The argument is that he doesn't have any national security experience. Well, take a look at some people who did have national security experience — people like John Brennan and James Clapper. James Clapper was the DNI under Obama, and he helped orchestrate the Russia collusion hoax against President Trump.
That's what experience gets you. If that's all you're worried about, then maybe you should think about something else. I mean, this guy — whether anybody knows about him or not — at least he's not guilty of trying to orchestrate a coup against a sitting president of the United States. So I would say that bodes well for him.
As far as the Democrats using this as an excuse to say no to 702 — you're saying no to national security because you're upset about the fact that you weren't consulted about a nominee that the president has put forward in an acting capacity.
So get over yourselves for five minutes. Let's worry about national security and move on to the next challenge.
BARTIROMO: Yeah, it's a great point all around, Congressman, I've got to say — particularly the point about John Brennan and Clapper, who made up stories and pushed this lie of Russia collusion, and they had all the experience that the Democrats are referring to.
But look, the authorization of the nation's foreign spy powers is expiring next week, and the Democrats are threatening to tank it if Bill Pulte stays. Your reaction?
CRAWFORD: Again, this is playing politics with national security. You can't hold something like this hostage because you don't like the president's pick for acting DNI. That's just completely childish.
Like I said, take a beat here, get over yourselves for a second, and recognize we're dealing with national security matters that transcend administrations and personalities. This is very important stuff. You're sent to Washington to do a job with some measure of maturity and responsibility. So just do it.
If there's anyone acting "childish" here, it's these two liars for defending the indefensible, and Trump for putting someone who is completely unqualified into a position like DNI. All they've got are lies and name-calling.
