President Donald Trump’s pick of loyalist Richard Grenell to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence has a notable critic in Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), who helped write the law that created the position.

Back in 2004, Collins and a group of senators introduced a bill to create the position in response to intelligence sharing failures that allowed terrorists to successfully execute the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

That bill would become law a year later, and now the Director of National Intelligence oversees the entire intelligence community, which includes 17 agencies.

But last week, Trump fired Acting Director Joseph Maguire after his office briefed the House Intelligence Committee about Russian meddling in the 2020 Election, something Trump wanted to be kept secret. In his place, Trump installed Grenell, the former Ambassador of Germany and MAGA Twitter troll who is loyal only to Trump and intends to purge the intelligence community or anyone who criticizes or opposes him.

Grenell also has zero experience in the intelligence field, making him an all-around poor choice to hold such a powerful post.

On Monday, Collins voiced her objections.

“I would have much preferred that the president nominate the acting director Maguire for the post,” Collins said. “As one of the four authors of the law that created the DNI back in 2004, I care deeply about that position and believe the person needs experience in the intelligence community, which regrettably Ambassador Grenell does not have.”

Unfortunately, we all know that Collins will just roll over for Trump and let him seize the intelligence apparatus for his own political and personal gain rather than stand up to him. Her comments sound good, but her actions speak louder. She had a chance to vote for impeachment witnesses but blocked them instead. She also could have voted to convict Trump but voted to acquit him. She then simply hoped that Trump had learned something from being impeached.

Well, this is the result. Trump is now purging federal agencies and installing cronies who are only loyal to him instead of being loyal to the Constitution and the country. And that’s going to put our national security in serious jeopardy as career intelligence officials are removed and replaced with people who have no idea what they are doing. That means the next 9/11 is not only on Trump’s hands, it’s on Collins’ hands as well, and it’s why she should be ousted from office in November.

 

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