Robert O’Brien, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday to make the case that Russia had a new best friend in American politics. While he had not “seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything” to help Trump win reelection, he told host George Stephanopoulos, “there are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president.”

“That’s no surprise,” he continued. “He honeymooned in Moscow. President Trump has rebuilt the American military to an extent we haven’t seen since Ronald Reagan. So, I don’t think it’s any surprise that Russia or China or Iran would want somebody other than President Trump.”



This is the new playbook for dealing with intelligence reports showing that Russia intends to meddle once more in an American election to benefit Trump. The president is going to aggressively use the national security state to suggest that the real beneficiary of Russian interference is Bernie Sanders. It’s a nakedly cynical move, but the politicization of government intelligence has already been embraced by many who should know better, including Democrats. And it will continue to spread, thanks in large part to cable news’s addiction to the Russian storyline of Trump’s presidency.



Publicly, the Trump administration has shrugged off reports that Russia is backing the president’s reelection campaign. Speaking to Stephanopoulos, O’Brien insisted that the reports were fake news. “I haven’t seen any of that intelligence. So if it’s out there, it’s something I haven’t seen,” he said. Trump himself has tweeted that the reports were not credible and were “just another Schifty Schiff leak,” a reference to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.



In private, the president fumed after it was first reported that a U.S. intelligence official, Shelby Pierson, had briefed the Intelligence Committee that Russia had “developed a preference” for Trump. Trump told Joseph Maguire, the former acting director of national intelligence, that he was being “played.” Shortly thereafter, Maguire was fired, replaced by Richard Grennell, a hard-core loyalist with little intelligence experience. A day later, reports emerged that Russia was backing Sanders for the Democratic nomination and ultimately the presidency.

