Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he’s a national security risk
I know, I know. Duh, right? But still, it helps to have more Republicans saying this even if the rank and file are all lining up to take more kool-aid:
Esper, who served in Trump’s Cabinet, said: “People have described him as a hoarder when it comes to these type of documents. But clearly, it was unauthorized, illegal and dangerous.”
[…]
“Imagine if a foreign agent, another country were to discover documents that outline America’s vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the United States military,” he said. “Think about how that could be exploited, how that could be used against us in a conflict, how an enemy could develop countermeasures, things like that. Or in the case of the most significant piece that was raised in the allegation about U.S. plans to attack Iran, think about how that affects our readiness, our ability to prosecute an attack.”
Tapper asked Esper if he thought that Trump, if elected president in 2024, could ever be trusted with the nation’s secrets again.
“Based on his actions, again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel, no,” Esper said.
“I mean, it’s just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around.”
Of course he’s a threat. Some of us knew he was a threat the minute he started exhorting Russia to hack Clinton’s emails but hey, better late than never.
Does everyone remember after he first met with Putin in July of 2017 he came up with this?
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that he discussed forming a cyber security unit to guard against election hacking with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Tweeting after his first meeting with Putin on Friday, Trump said now was the time to work constructively with Moscow, pointing to a ceasefire deal in southwest Syria that came into effect on Sunday.
“Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe,” he said following their talks at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
The notion prompted bipartisan disbelief, and Trump backed away from it within hours. But it surfaced again Monday after the two leaders met in Helsinki, Finland, when Putin suggested both countries work together to examine the evidence that Russia had meddled in the U.S. presidential election.
“We can analyze [evidence] through the joint working group on cybersecurity, the establishment of which we discussed during our previous contacts,” Putin suggested, confirming that he and Trump had talked about the idea before.
His remarks resurfaced much of the scorn that Trump’s original tweets had received from lawmakers and cybersecurity experts. Putin’s comments also renewed some people’s worries that Trump might appease the Russian leader by finally taking action on his suggestion — perhaps giving Russia an inside look at the U.S. investigation of the attacks.
We all saw this stuff happening in real time. How could anyone be surprised that he would steal classified documents? And nobody should be surprised if we learn someday that some writers and campaign aides weren’t the only ones he shared them with.