Sources tell Politico that US intelligence community officials will not attend the upcoming Worldwide Threats hearings in the House and Senate, fearing that their testimony will enrage the president.
The hearings are an annual event for US intelligence agencies to update members of Congress and the American people on global threats to the nation, with both public and private sessions. After last year’s hearings, officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, CIA, FBI, NSA, and other agencies would rather cancel the event than offend Donald Trump.
Trump was provoked by last year’s intelligence findings on foreign nations that differed dramatically from his public statements (propaganda).
Officials testified, for example, that there is no evidence to suggest that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. Trump responded on Twitter by calling officials naive and saying they “should go back to school.” Iran, Trump claimed, was testing rockets just a week before the hearing.
Last month, officials asked the House and Senate to cancel the public portion of the event. It’s unclear whether Congress responded to that request before officials backed out of the hearing altogether.
External Sources
Photo: Public Domain
