Democrats and Intelligence Reform

“I listen to foreign-affairs podcasts so you don't have to. A steady refrain has been that the Biden administration persuaded allies and adversaries that the first Donald Trump presidency was an "aberration." Then, dang it, the American people elected him again.

 

I doubt our allies are so naive. After all, it was Dutch intelligence that handed over thumb drives of dubious Russian intelligence in 2016 -- which FBI chief James Comey promptly exploited to justify improper acts that accidentally helped elect Mr. Trump. The British saw their washed-up agent's discredited allegations about Mr. Trump knowingly embraced and circulated by Democrats and the CIA. The Australians saw a vague utterance by one of their diplomats spun into a Trump-Russia investigation, soon propagandized all over Washington.

 

Our allies would see 51 of their former U.S. associates deliberately lie to U.S. voters about Hunter Biden's laptop to help elect Joe Biden in 2020. Through a dozen or so summits, they would then witness up close Mr. Biden's decline and yet see the U.S. establishment virtually invite Mr. Trump's return by trying to reinstall a senile Mr. Biden as president.

 

Last month, Britain's respected Financial Times detailed for global readers the activities of CIA ex-officials to influence the coming midterms -- and reminded them that similar officials were behind the collusion and laptop episodes.

 

Stop giving Democrats ideas, a Trump supporter recently emailed me. Exactly. A day doesn't go by without liberals moaning about the need to rebuild bridges to the pro-Trump white working class. Here's an opportunity.

 

Take Rep. Ro Khanna. He kept his distance from the collusion follies. He opposed his own party's lawfare. The day after the New York Times reported on Mr. Biden's demand for Trump prosecutions, he complained on CNN, "We were going to be the party that upholds the rule of law."

 

The ambitious Mr. Khanna has instead tried to distinguish himself by flailing after every bandwagon that goes by, from Jeffrey Epstein and billionaire wealth taxes to AI regulation. Why?

 

After their visits with our editorial board in recent years, I've described a couple of Democrats now apparently running for president turning mute, dissembling, signaling fear when asked about the intelligence agencies.

 

This is terrible for our country. If Rahm Emanuel is troubled, what must Rep. Ilhan Omar be thinking? Surely she and other Democrats understand that for decades, it wasn't Donald Trump but left-wingers like themselves who were targets of FBI and CIA abuses.

 

The press is afraid too -- a venerable Washington Post columnist goes on and on about Mr. Trump's improper election meddling but never mentions that of his own CIA friends. PBS repeatedly peddles lawyer Marc Elias to viewers as a tribune of election integrity, never mentioning his role in funding and disseminating the Steele dossier.

 

Ex-CIA vice presidential briefer Julia Curlee is lately lauded everywhere for courage in coming out as trans. She rightly criticizes President Trump for flogging flimsy evidence from FBI files about Chinese meddling to discredit the 2020 election. But at least Mr. Trump didn't fabricate the evidence. Ms. Curlee would need 10 times the courage to acknowledge the sins of her own agency, and not mainly for their impropriety.

 

Consult the CIA's public glossary: "Blowback" is its term when a failed operation produces a "negative effect on U.S. national security interests." I've often said the tacit anti-Trump operation mounted by the FBI and CIA was the most failed U.S. intelligence operation in history, achieving the opposite of its desired aims. You may not have read a half-dozen reports by the Justice Department inspector general and U.S. Special Counsel. You can bet foreign governments pored over them, seeking insight into the mental and moral chaos overtaking the U.S. establishment.

 

A prominent Democrat breaking up this glacier of dishonesty wouldn't only bollix up many party rivals who soiled themselves in the collusion matter. When our allies haven't been wondering if Mr. Trump is crazy, they've been wondering if Democrats and the anti-Trump U.S. establishment are crazy. Here's a chance to reassure them.

 

A great country deserves better than a leader with a yellow streak a mile wide even if nobody talks about it. That's what Americans will get if the next Democrat is unwilling to break his or her silence on the intelligence-agency corruption of the past decade.

 

Of course, coverups usually fail, but most fail in ways that leave no heroes, only a permanent odor of malfeasance. Let this be an exception. A true air-clearing would remake the Democratic Party, disempowering many of its corrupt gerontocrats, letting others move into positions of real responsibility. Then maybe their party could stop making a fool of itself over 0.1% issues like trans, open borders and "defund the police." Democrats could refocus on the things Americans need a governing party to focus on.” [1]

 

1. Democrats and Intelligence Reform. Jenkins, Holman W; Jr.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 30 Sep 2026: A15.