Just add one more panic button to the growing list of the anticipated and unimaginable dangers outgoing President Trump is leaving this country with in 2020. In addition to the internal cultural strife that he only exacerbated; the continued unmitigated failure of his administration's response to the pandemic that has left 316,000+ Americans dead; the wrecking of our economy that has seen 8 million Americans fall below the poverty live since April; we now know that the United States has suffered the worst national security failure since WWII.
It simply leaves one to ask: What the hell else?
Since March a sophisticated trojan horse malware attack through a 'trusted source' network has penetrated numerous government agencies and businesses with access to untold amounts of classified information, which could take months if not years to assess the damage.
By all accounts from the United States intelligence community, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and congress people on both sides of the aisles, responsibility all points Putin's Russian regime.
And then the odd off-putting dance and song we've heard before, which begins with the president doing a soft-shoe saying nothing about the Russian cyberattack on American sovereignty followed by the off-key, tone-deaf response that it 'could be China.'
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) on the program today, recalled his impassioned plea this week to the Administration to respond to this publicly and said he was disappointed by the president's comments. What he also said this week that this cyberattack was the equivalent of Russia flying war planes over the continental United States and doing nothing about it.
Chuck Todd didn't bring up that last piece today, but he seemed to refer to it when asking Senator Romney about the line between espionage and an act of war. Understandably, Mr. Romney who chooses his words carefully avoided the distinction, but was forthright in stating that the Russians feel as though they can act impunity, the United States has to rethink it cyber capabilities defensively and offensively, and that there should be a response.
The last one for certain. There needs to be an offensive response against the perpetrators of this invasion of the United States' government systems. The response needs to be aggressive, large scale and on multiple fronts. What it must not be is rushed, but it must indeed be.
It has gone on for too long in too many countries, not to mention gratuitously brazen assassinations throughout European countries. A time for response is coming, but chess masters know this and prepare and in the meantime, grab all they can before their opponent finally wakes the hell up and responds.
Senator Romney also said that the president has a blind spot when it comes to putting responsibility upon Russia for its apparent bad actions. 'Blind spot' was a charitable eyebrow raiser and it didn't go unnoticed by Mr. Todd. The senator responded that he didn't want to psychoanalyze the president, which is another way of saying "I don't want to go there." But it doesn't take psychoanalysis, it takes a thorough deep dive into the tangled web that is Mr. Trump's finances. If there is reason to look in any direction that would be the one this column recommends.
All that said, one can be as optimistic about a response as one can about getting a Covid-19 vaccine at this moment. NBC's Hallie Jackson reported that all of the president's focus is on the election and trying to find a way to overturn it while as a sidebar creating as many problems as possible for the incoming Biden Administration. Notably, the president's newly appointed loyalists to the Pentagon are holding up transition briefings.
Pretty heavy and heady for a Sunday before Christmas - too much to think about. However, the question remains of what other pain can this outgoing president inflict to weaken this nation and cripple the government's capacity to keep its citizens safe.
In the meantime, please have a very safe, healthy and happy holiday. Thank you for reading.
Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Yamiche Alcindor, PBS News Hour; Rich Lowry, The National Review
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