Dan Coats Say That Again Video
'Say That Again?': Prospect of Putin White House Visit Surprises Intelligence Chief
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Watch Dan Coats Find Out Trump Invited Putin to the White House
The director of national intelligence was being interviewed live when he learned President Trump had invited the Russian president, Vladimir 5. Putin, to the White House for a meeting in the autumn.
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"We have some breaking news. The White Firm has announced on Twitter that Vladimir Putin is coming to the White House in the fall." "Say that again?" [Audience laughs] "Yous —" "Vladimir Putin, coming to the —" "Did I hear you —" "Yeah. Yes." "O.One thousand." "That's going to be special."
The nation's intelligence primary connected on Thursday to harden his warnings about the cyberthreat from Russian federation and expressed surprise at hearing that President Trump planned to invite its leader, President Vladimir V. Putin, to the White House, but promised to deliver a aboveboard cess to Mr. Trump near the dangers of such a visit.
Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, appeared genuinely astonished during a national security briefing in Aspen, Colo., when he was told that the White Business firm appear plans to invite Mr. Putin to Washington.
"Say that again?" Mr. Coats asked Andrea Mitchell of NBC, the event moderator, earlier uttering an exaggerated and drawn-out "O.G." He added, "That is going to exist special."
In a follow-up question, Mr. Coats acknowledged his surprise. "We will be looking at what the potential intelligence risks could maybe exist, and we will make that information available to the president," he said.
Mr. Coats's appearance was the latest in a string of episodes in recent days in which he has unexpectedly shown a willingness to contradict Mr. Trump's on-and-off skepticism virtually the evidence that Moscow intervened in the 2022 election.
A confrontation could exist brewing. Mr. Coats has been taking an ever-tougher line on Russia, and as he continues to band the alert bong, current and onetime officials have wondered whether he intends to stay long in his job or if Mr. Trump will let him to remain.
Mr. Coats said he had no intention of leaving. "Equally long as I am able to have the ability to seek the truth, speak the truth, I am on board," he said during the question-and-answer session at the Aspen Security Forum.
For many in Washington, the emergence of Mr. Coats equally the nigh prominent assistants official willing to push dorsum against the president, gently but repeatedly, has been a surprise. As a two-time Republican senator from Indiana, Mr. Coats was known for eschewing the flashy, focusing on pushing his agenda with back-room conversations, non news-making speeches.
Simply he was non alone in his skepticism over a White House invitation for Mr. Putin. Electric current and former senior American intelligence officials expressed deep concern and skepticism. "It seems this is a reward for bad beliefs," said James R. Clapper Jr., Mr. Coats's predecessor as manager of national intelligence.
Mr. Clapper said that bringing Mr. Putin, a one-time Yard.M.B. primary, into the White House would pose stiff intelligence risks. "This will be a complex intelligence and counterintelligence claiming," he said.
Mr. Coats likewise said he was not fully aware of what Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin discussed in their one-on-i meeting on Monday in Helsinki, Finland, simply that he hopes to learn soon, a remarkable admission for a cabinet-level national security official.
And asked whether Mr. Trump should avoid a similar 1-on-ane meeting with Mr. Putin if he comes to the White Firm, Mr. Coats said he would "look for a different manner of doing it." White House officials said on Thursday that Mr. Trump planned to invite Mr. Putin to visit in the autumn.
Mr. Coats as well said, with a measure of diplomacy, that he had non been aware of the 2022 meeting in the Oval Office between Mr. Trump and Sergey Five. Lavrov, Russia'south foreign government minister, forth with Sergey I. Kislyak, and so the Russian administrator to the United states. During their discussion, Mr. Trump revealed sensitive Israeli intelligence.
That meeting, Mr. Coats said, was "probably not the best thing."
Mr. Coats'due south advent at Aspen subsequently a calendar week of controversy was itself something of a divergence, given Mr. Trump'southward avowed dismissal of establishment politics. The security forum is a gathering of foreign policy experts that some Trump supporters view as the playground of the and so-called deep state, the kind of establishment national security experts fiercely opposed by the current White House.
Earlier in the day, Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, faced questions defending the administration'due south clearing policies, which are deeply unpopular with much of the crowd at Aspen.
In contrast, Mr. Coats'south tough line on Russia won him strong applause. Still, information technology risks the ire of the White House. For all the care Mr. Coats, an experienced politician, has taken to hedge his criticism of Mr. Trump, the gap between the president's views and his has never been more than clear or in the open.
On Mon, at a news conference afterward the meeting with Mr. Putin, the president appeared to suggest he did non know whether to believe the intelligence community'southward account of Moscow's interference in the 2022 election or Mr. Putin's denial.
That prompted a relatively blunt response from Mr. Coats: "Nosotros take been articulate in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2022 ballot and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our commonwealth."
A day after, Mr. Trump tried to clarify his comments, proverb that he misspoke and had previously noted intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the ballot.
On Thursday, Mr. Coats said he was only doing his job. He said he had promised Mr. Trump that he would be presenting him "unvarnished, non-politicized" information.
"What we had assessed, and reassessed, and reassessed, still stands, and it was important to accept that stand on behalf of the intelligence community and behalf of the American people," Mr. Coats said.
He said he had a skilful human relationship with Mr. Trump and noted that since his statement on Monday, the president has made comments in support of his view of Russian interference in the election.
Mr. Coats also avoided wading into some controversies. He declined, for example, to weigh in on Mr. Putin'south asking to interrogate Michael McFaul, the one-time American ambassador to Russia. The White House printing secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Thursday that the administration had rejected the offering.
Despite the warning about Russia's intent to undermine American commonwealth, Mr. Coats did say there was room for cooperation on terrorism with Moscow. He made clear, though, that he has told his counterparts in Russia that it would be limited.
"I am only here to talk well-nigh protecting our people," Mr. Coats said he told Russian officials. "Nosotros don't hold virtually anything else."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/us/politics/dan-coats-trump-russia.html
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