FIGHTING THE FAKE NEWS – AT 12:48 P.M. ET:  Secretary of Defense Mattis hits back at a demeaning portrayal of President Trump.  From Fox: 

Pentagon Secretary James Mattis didn’t borrow his boss’s favorite phrase to refute a Washington Post report that President Trump doesn’t want to hear about Russia from his intel chiefs, but he might as well have called it fake news.

The former Marine Corps general told reporters Friday that, contrary to the newspaper’s lengthy report, no one advising the president seems to have reason to steer clear of the subject of Moscow and national security.

“I have no reservation, nor has the President ever evidenced any pushback, when I bring up Russia in a national security context, and obviously this has come up whether it be in Syria or with NATO and all the other places where you have heard me speaking about this,” Mattis said. “I have not seen this shyness over at the White House and in the Situation Room."

The Post reported that Trump is so eager to improve relations with Russia that he has not held the Kremlin to account for allegedly meddling in the U.S. election. Although U.S. intelligence agencies agree that the interference occurred, President Trump has not been expressed such certainty. Mattis, for his part, agrees with the intel community.

“Yes, I believe they did,” Mattis said.

COMMENT:  Okay, but the point is that no one is holding back with opinions on Russia that the president may not agree with.

As for the criticism that Trump doesn't "listen to the professionals," always beware of observations like that.  Real presidents, effective presidents, will hear out the "professionals," but challenge them.  Some of the greatest decisions presidents have made involved defying the "professionals." 

When President Reagan proposed to say, at the Berlin wall, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," the "professionals" strongly objected.  Reagan said it anyway because that's where his instincts took him.  It became his most famous line, and the wall came down.

December 16, 2017