The Russia Hoax exploded into the national media during the 2016 election campaign.
The likes of Rachel Maddow, CNN, and BuzzFeed relentlessly pushed the "fever dream" that Donald Trump was a Manchurian candidate in cahoots with Russia. "Journalists" even won Pulitzers for the highly flawed, and sometimes bogus, reporting.
At the same time as Russia Hoaxers were exaggerating or lying about the support Russia was giving to the Trump campaign, the national media, the Obama administration, and the intelligence community itself were either ignoring or even downplaying the threat posed to America's elections coming from China.
A striking new report on the lengths one highly prestigious intelligence community member, the National Security Agency (NSA), went to in order to downplay China's election interference is especially damning in relief to this sensationalistic media backdrop.
That is because China was trying to stop Donald Trump from being reelected President of the United States (in 2020).
A newly declassified memo from the White House Government Transparency Task Force was released on Tuesday. It states:
“DDIR explained that he was concerned that releasing the [report] at this time – in the current political climate, with an acting ODNI who had been tasked (according to DDIR) to ‘clean house’ in the intelligence community, and with an administration that is suspicious of the IC and aggressive in removing anyone who stands in their way – would damage NSA’s credibility. He believed that questions would be asked as to why the NSA was choosing to release this information, most obviously pertinent to the 2016 election, now, more than a year after the election, and that NSA would be accused of releasing it for political purposes."
"DDIR perceived that ODNI, CIA, and to an extent the FBI had been tarred as hosting or being part of the ‘deep state’, but that NSA thus far had not been associated with the deep state and was trusted; he felt that publishing this report would destroy that trust. He felt that the questioning of NSA that would ensue would have ramifications on the credibility of NSA reporting overall and would result in morale problems among the broader NSA workforce. He repeatedly said that he wanted to protect our ability to be who we are at NSA: nonpartisan, objective, speaking truth to power."
As Just the News noted, the NSA reportedly did not highlight the China election interference threat out of fear of being labeled part of the "deep state."
NSA Election Threat Reporting March 2020 by Kyle Becker
That is extremely ironic because the effect of the NSA reporting the China election threat would be to balance out and contextualize the Russia Hoax. It would be a very "not deep state" thing to do.
Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge also remarked on the newly declassified memo, noting the NSA refrained from underscoring the China election threat in 2016 and 2020.
NEW: Declassified Records Allege Top Official Reluctant to Share Election Intel, Feared "Deep State" Label @WhiteHouse Transparency Task Force
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) August 18, 2026
March 2020 email: Alleges deputy director of National Security Agency (NSA) opposed sharing election intelligence including 2016 and… pic.twitter.com/rhdiu2trr3
Herridge reported the following on X:
Declassified Records Allege Top Official Reluctant to Share Election Intel, Feared "Deep State" Label
@WhiteHouse Transparency Task ForceMarch 2020 email: Alleges deputy director of National Security Agency (NSA) opposed sharing election intelligence including 2016 and 2020 - Timing could 'invite accusations of politicization' - First Trump administration was “suspicious of the IC (intelligence community) and aggressive in removing anyone who stands in their way.” - Acting ODNI Richard Grenell@RichardGrenell “had been tasked to ‘clean house’ in the intelligence community.” - Releasing intelligence about the 2016 election in 2020 would lead the NSA to being "accused of releasing it for political purposes.” - Deputy Director (DDIR) wanted to protect the NSA’s reputation as neutral, credible while admitting that the CIA, FBI, and ODNI were “perceived… as hosting or being part of the ‘deep state.’” - "The meeting ended with a suggestion that we all chew on it. (REDACTED) said (REDACTED) would come back with options."
The new report further illustrates the U.S. government has been systematically ignoring or underplaying the threat posed by China.
It was recently revealed that the FBI dropped an investigation into former Rep. Eric Swalwell's (D-CA) ties to reported CCP spy Fang Fang. The Stanford espionage scandal is especially disturbing in light of former Attorney General Merrick Garland's termination of an agency effort to investigate China's ties to universities.
China is also the origin of the worldwide COVID pandemic, and it has not only benefited from the damage it caused around the globe, but it has largely gone unpunished for its well-documented cover-up.
The Russia Hoax was one of the most damaging propaganda campaigns in American history. The national media's breathless reporting on unsubstantiated hearsay, some ironically based on Hillary Clinton's weaponization of Russian disinformation, is further exacerbated by another kind of big lie: the lie of omission.
READ MORE: Shocking FBI Files Reveal What Swalwell Actually Admitted About His Relationship With Chinese Spy
If the U.S. media had reported on the information the NSA had during the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns that China opposed Trump's election, it would have provided much-needed balance to the Intelligence Community's exaggerated and misleading reports on alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
Admiral Mike Rogers, the NSA chief at the time, was the voice of reason, as shown by his testimony in 2017 that his agency departed from the "high confidence" CIA and FBI assessments that Russia interfered in the election to help Donald Trump and harm Hillary Clinton, assessing it as only "moderate confidence."
It was also revealed by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that Rogers pushed back against former DNI James Clapper.
Today, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard declassified a Top Secret email from then-DNI James Clapper exposing his efforts to suppress concerns raised by then-National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers regarding the politicized January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that President Obama ordered.
On December 22, 2016, Rogers wrote an email to Clapper, then-FBI Director James Comey, and then CIA Director John Brennan expressing serious concerns over the NSA’s lack of “sufficient access,” warning that NSA personnel “aren’t fully comfortable saying that they have had enough time to review all of the intelligence to be absolutely confident in their assessments.” Clapper responded, “We may have to compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities” and “more time is not negotiable.”
“The leading figures in the Russia Hoax have spent years deceiving the American public by presenting their manufactured and politicized assessments as credible intelligence. The email released today reinforces what we already exposed: the decision to compromise standards and violate protocols in the creation of the 2017 manufactured intelligence assessment was deliberate and came from the very top,” said DNI Gabbard. “Clapper’s own words confirm that complying with the order to manufacture intelligence was a ‘team sport.’”
This partisan weaponization of the intelligence community to further political narratives has exposed the United States to grave risk from its real main adversary: China.
Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote. It's common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the impact of such a measure.
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