Susan Rice

Susan Rice On Trump's Wiretapping Claim

... her first interview since stepping down as national security adviser when President Barack Obama left office. Rice also took aim at the Trump White House in a Washington Post op-ed Wednesday. “False statements from the White House are part of a disturbing pattern of behavior that poses real and potentially profound dangers to U. S. national security,” Rice wrote. In the PBS News Hour interview, Rice, who served as the U. S. ambassador to the United Nations during Obama’s first term, said the world was watching Trump’s presidency closely. “I think the world is not impervious to what happens here in the United States,” Rice said. “On the contrary, they watch it very, very carefully.”. Her remarks came shortly after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) met with Trump at the White House to discuss the panel’s investigation into Russia’s influence on last year’s presidential race. Nunes told ...

Rush Limbaugh Rips ‘unmasking’ By Susan Rice, Says Obama ‘weaponized Everything’ To Destroy Trump

... Limbaugh said the real story is being muddled by political analysts. “The Obama administration weaponized everything else to use against the GOP, from the IRS to NOAA to any of these agencies, EPA, involving climate change,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “The Drive-By Media reported all of this. We know that there had to be unmasking. We know that there had to be leaking. The media proudly told us that sources who could not be identified […] fed them data. We know now that the media was complicit.”. The conservative then said media outlets that reported on possible collusion between Mr. Trump ’s campaign and Russia are now slow to say how the Obama administration may have legally but unethically spied on Mr. Trump ’s campaign. “I want to repeat a possibility that I mentioned,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “While [the Obama administration] couldn’t get a FISA warrant to target Americans, ...

Covering Trump Surveillance Story Helps Russia ‘undermine’ American Democracy

... about the Trump transition plans for when they came into office and who they were meeting with and their views on foreign policy. Again, it's a pretty low bar and maybe the real scandal here is that the rules need to be tightened and the surveillance law needs to be reformed. TUR: Were you able to find out if she was successful in unmasking these names? Doesn’t she have to have that granted by NSA Mike Rogers. LAKE: Yes, but she – in a lot of cases she was able to unmask the names later. TUR: But could Mike Rogers be considered somebody out for a political hit on anybody in the Trump campaign, considering he was trying to get a position within the Trump administration. LAKE: No, I don't think Mike Rogers could, but I think it’s also the standard practice. We know from before, when ...

Why This Former Obama Staffer Is At The Center Of Right Wing Conspiracies

... of monitoring a foreign national, it is practice to 'mask' the identity of the U. S. person. Additionally, the identification of a U. S. citizen mentioned in discussions between two foreign nationals is supposed to be masked.". However, officials with proper clearance can ask that those names be made known in intelligence reports. This is known as unmasking, and is a normal and legal part of the duties of national security staffers. It is not the same as leaking information to the media, which can be illegal under some circumstances. Multiple former intel officials from GOP & Dem admins tell me the unmasking story is overblown. Tune in to @The Lead CNN at 425 p. — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 3, 2017. What does it have to do with the Trump/Russia investigation. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said March 22 ...

Remember When Susan Rice Said She Knew Nothing Of The Trump 'unmasking

... on March 22 to comment on a press conference held by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., in which he revealed the incidental collection. "I know nothing about this," Rice stated flatly in her PBS Newshour interview. "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today.". Rice added, "So, today, I really don't know to what Chairman Nunes was referring, but he said that whatever he was referring to was a legal, lawful surveillance, and that it was potentially incidental collection on American citizens.". The former national security adviser went on to criticize the president's highly contested claim that former President Obama had Trump Tower's "wires tapped" during the 2016 election. However, the Bloomberg report published Monday casts doubt on her flat denial that she knew anything about the intelligence activities surrounding Trump and his people. "The pattern of Rice's requests was discovered in a ...

Susan Rice Is The Wrong Person To Attack Trump’s Credibility

... shows the lengths that The Washington Post will go to in its constant campaign to discredit and undermine the Trump presidency. Rice writes, “To lead effectively, the United States must maintain respect and trust. So, when a White House deliberately dissembles and serially contorts the facts, its actions pose a serious risk to America’s global leadership, among friends and adversaries alike.”. If the left-wing, mainstream media had any say about how the Benghazi scandal was covered, both Rice and Obama would emerge unscathed from their deceptions. NBC News, in its reporting on her column , left mention of Rice’s deceit to the last paragraph and then characterized the controversy as one manufactured by Republicans. “Rice had been lined up to replace Hillary Clinton as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state,” Alastair Jamieson reports, “but dropped out of the running after she was criticized by Republicans for initially characterizing the assault on the U. S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as opportunistic when evidence later emerged that it was a premeditated attack.” While Jamieson claims that “evidence later emerged,” we have noted that there was evidence ...

Experts Say Susan Rice Had Every Right To Request ‘unmasking’ In Intel Reports

... James Comey recently confirmed has been ongoing since July 2016, the discovery of such conversations would “naturally and appropriately” prompt top-level national security officials to ask that U. S. persons’ names be unmasked “to see if any inappropriate action is taking place.”. That was not how Trump’s allies viewed the Bloomberg report and other reports alleging Rice asked to have Trump staffers’ identities unmasked, however. “Smoking gun found!” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) charged on Twitter. “Obama pal and noted dissembler Susan Rice said to have been spying on Trump campaign.”. Smoking gun found! Obama pal and noted dissembler Susan Rice said to have been spying on Trump campaign. — Senator Rand Paul (@Rand Paul) April 3, 2017. “Unmasker Unmasked: Susan Rice Named As Intel Boss Who Exposed Team Trump Surveillance,” read the headline on Fox News’ homepage. That reaction was familiar: A similar chorus erupted when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) first went public last month with claims that Trump staffers’ names were unmasked in intercepts unrelated to the FBI’s Russia probe. Conservative pundits and politicians seized on the purported ...

Trump Steps Up Effort To Dispute And Distract On Russia

... leaked and mishandled classified material about Americans. Trump and his aides have accused former officials of inappropriately disclosing — or "unmasking" — the names of Trump associates whose conversations were picked up by U. S. intelligences agencies. "Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends," Trump tweeted Monday. 'Spied on before nomination.' The real story.". The White House has not pointed to any hard evidence to support such allegations, and instead has relied on media reports from some of the same publications Trump derides as "fake news.". The truth is buried somewhere in classified material that is illegal to disclose. Here's a look at what the White House believes is the real story. THE FLYNN AFFAIR. Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn following news reports that Flynn misled the White House about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U. S. But the White House says the problem is that Flynn's conversations were in the news at all. "The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming ...

Susan Rice Prompted Trump Aides' Unmasking In Intel Reports

... transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration. The individual leading the NSC review was the council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, according to the report. Cohen-Watnick was recently reported  to be one of three White House staffers who allegedly played a role in providing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) with intelligence reports in which Nunes claimed Trump transition officials’ identities were inappropriately unmasked. That revelation burned Lake, who had reported that Nunes told him his source was an intelligence, not White House, official. “He misled me,” Lake wrote of the California lawmaker last week. Rice did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment. In an interview last month on “PBS News Hour,” Rice said she knew “nothing” about reports that Trump and his transition officials were swept up in foreign surveillance. “I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account,” she said at the time. Reports that Rice ...

Trump's Words Are 'profound Danger To National Security

... Britain's spy agency were part of a "disturbing pattern of behavior that poses real and potentially profound dangers to U. S. national security.". She wrote: "When the American people question the commander in chief's statements, his ability to harness public support to confront a national crisis is undermined.". Rice, a Rhodes scholar who was confirmed as an ambassador by unanimous consent, warned that Washington's world standing was being harmed. Related: Trump's Black Caucus Remarks Were 'Offensive,' Rice Says. "The foundation of the United States' unrivaled global leadership rests only in part on our military might," she wrote. "It is also grounded in the perception that the United States is steady, rational and fact-based.". She added: "To lead effectively, the United States must maintain respect and trust. So, when a White ...