Thread by @GeorgeWHerbert

Meta-commentary about the Russian bounties on US troops thing.

I’m assuming it’s real, fooling the national security reporter ms at NTY and Washington Post simultaneously is possible but really difficult. DOD and Intelligence sources not widely rebutting the claims now.

2/ It’s not surprising that it would be kept secret for a time. Intelligence and the military and leadership would want to verify as strongly as possible. The consequences of a half baked response to a mistaken report is immense.

Presumably it was by now adequately confirmed.

3/ That it leaked, now, is telling. Several people inside government were willing to at least confirm its existence and likely multiple people actually reached out to reporters. They’re people whose jobs and futures are on the line over leaks this sensitive.

4/ The odds are high that they would not have taken those risks if they believed the President or Administration were acting in good faith for the United States. It’s literally operationally sensitive enough that lives are already at stake.

5/ Former leaders and former administration officials are speaking out widely publicly now. That’s probably influential in the timing. So are recent Trump public flubs and missteps.

6/ There were already surveys showing broad military distrust of Trump. It’s difficult to formally survey the intelligence community... but the military as a proxy for them has utility as a comparison. Informal anecdotes seem to confirm that.

7/ What I’m coming around to is that Trump’s losing or lost the authority and trust needed to control the military and intelligence organizations. He has the formal command authority, but not the trust or respect needed to actually lead.

This is bad on many levels.

8/ I don’t see any way Trump can get it back. That’s a one way street.

For government to properly function it needs to have that informal authority as well as legal authority.

This is where Republicans need to stop, and look and think hard, and ask Trump to resign.

9/ Departments critical for national security peeling away and moving from passive mistrust to active obstruction and actions against the Administration is a breakdown we can’t actually tolerate for long.

10/ Unfortunately this to some extent plays into the expressive preemptive martyrdom the Republicans used for political leverage in the elections then started to act like they really believed. Some Republicans never bought into that & some may only publicly. They need to lead.

11/ It’s literally intolerable for Republicans to go into an election with a president & candidate who the government is already acting against. There aren’t enough political appointees to “run” the country. Loathing shifting towards disloyalty to covert revolt is disaster.

12/ Republicans need to tell him to resign & find an emergency replacement candidate (not Pence, he’s too tainted) who can rebuild governance trust within government. Before their convention.

Because now we’re seeing the beginning of the end, and Trump could still be reelected.

13/ Ending for now. There are some likely criticisms that I can and will need to rebut (“not the first leak in history” - ignores operational significance and timing of leaks; etc), but Twitter single threads not well suited for that.