The New York Times would like everyone to know that if Trump is re-elected in November, it wasn't because of his accomplishments, the economy, or packed stadiums full of dedicated supporters.

Nope - Putin's at it again!

In an unbelievable Thursday report, the Times claims that five anonymous sources leaked the details of a Feb. 13 briefing to House Lawmakers by intelligence officials warning that Russia has already been interfering in the 2020 election.

So - the Kremlin wants the president who, according to political analyst Ian Bremmer, has been tough on Russia - instead of, say, Bernie Sanders - the Democratic socialist who honeymooned in Moscow and would likely crash the US economy, thus weakening it, with his draconian socialist policies.

The Times report gets better; the House briefing reportedly angered President Trump so much that he berated outgoing director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, and that he was particularly irritated that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was included in the session. The report implies that Maguire was replaced with pro-Trump ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as a result of the incident.

During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security. Some intelligence officials viewed the briefing as a tactical error, saying that had the official who delivered the conclusion spoken less pointedly or left it out, they would have avoided angering the Republicans. That intelligence official, Shelby Pierson, is an aide to Mr. Maguire who has a reputation of delivering intelligence in somewhat blunt terms. The president announced on Wednesday that he was replacing Mr. Maguire with Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and long an aggressively vocal Trump supporter. -New York Times

Moments after the Times report was published, CNN immediately picked it up for their dozens of viewers.

And of course, the hot-takes:

This story doesn’t say how Russia is supposedly doing this https://t.co/6IiamPtSPI — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 20, 2020

This story claims that it had five (5!) people criminally leaking alleged content from a classified briefing. And why not, since no one gets prosecuted for these crimes. Still, we have a serious problem with our supposedly professional "intelligence" and "oversight" communities. https://t.co/zuAdwXpU2L — Mollie (@MZHemingway) February 20, 2020

Until heads roll and hoaxers are sent to prison, the seditious Russian collusion hoaxers will never stop. They will lie and leak and fabricate evidence, whatever it takes, to prevent the American people from taking charge of their own government. https://t.co/wijJ07QKOO — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 20, 2020

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/moscow-mules-nyt-secret-sources-cla…