Pelosi Cries Russia: 'American Voters Should Decide Elections, Not Putin'
House Speaker condemns President's actions over intelligence briefing
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced President Donald Trump's reported actions on Thursday over an intelligence briefing given to lawmakers on Russian intrusion in U.S. elections.
Pelosi said members should condemn any efforts to undermine the intelligence community.
Pelosi tweeted Thursday night:
"American voters should decide American elections — not Vladimir Putin. All Members of Congress should condemn the president’s reported efforts to dismiss threats to the integrity of our democracy & to politicize our intel community."
The House Speaker's remarks come following a New York Times report that House Intelligence Committee received a briefing that Russia was planning to interfere in the 2020 elections, including the Democratic primaries while favoring Trump.
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According to the report, Trump expressed anger toward Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, for allowing the briefing, which suggested the Democrats would use the information against him.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that the current ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, will take over from Maguire as the acting director.
The president later said that he is considering Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) for the permanent director's job.
"Thank you to our great US Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, for stepping in to serve as acting DNI. I will be nominating a terrific candidate for the job very soon," Trump tweeted. "Stay tuned!"
Pelosi later revealed that the House members would have an election security briefing on March 10.
Trump noted that House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff was in the intelligence briefing.
We await the election security briefing for Members on March 10.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 21, 2020
We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 21, 2020
If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling.
Exactly as we warned he would do. https://t.co/viSBlnA1nb
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Schiff Tweeted in response to the Times report:
"We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections. If reports are true and the president is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling. Exactly as we warned he would do."
Last month, Pelosi accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of being an "accomplice" to Russian interference while insisting President Trump is "in complete denial" about Russia's attempts to meddle in the 2020 election.
The House Speaker made the accusations during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week.
"Bloomberg is reporting, this Friday, the possibility that there is an investigation now on whether or not the Russians are trying to help President Trump and hurt Joe Biden," said Stephanopoulos.
"No, and the president of the United States is in complete denial about Russia's role," replied Pelosi.
"As I have said, in terms of this president, all roads lead to Putin."
