We are going to get to the bottom of the whistleblower’s allegations, but we cannot lose sight of how truly dangerous the President’s response to these allegations has been.
This President’s comments about “spies and treason” and “what we used to do in the old days” are totally unacceptable and will do serious damage far beyond this news cycle.
The whole reason we have whistleblower protections is so intelligence professionals can report wrongdoing *without fear of retaliation.*
Why? Consider the alternatives. If someone in the intelligence community witnesses something bad that jeopardizes our national security, where can they go if they can’t report it internally?
A future whistleblower could leak the information to the press, with no protections in place to safeguard classified information, or they could say nothing and let the wrongdoing continue. Both hurt us and help our adversaries.
If those are the only avenues for accountability within the intelligence community, the United States is in big trouble.
The role of the intelligence community is to speak truth to power, and with the IC already under assault from this administration, there’s no question that this President’s latest comments will have a chilling effect on the men and women who guard our secrets and keep us safe.
These allegations must be investigated in a bipartisan way. But regardless of what comes from these allegations against the President, we must protect the integrity of the whistleblower process.
This is one of those country-over-party moments. We should all be able to agree that this assault on the whistleblower process from the President and his allies needs to end immediately.
