GOP has Trump's back as he questions US intelligence

Republican Representative Paul Ryan was among those piling on when President Barack Obama came under fire several years ago for reading some of his daily intelligence briefings, rather than receiving them in-person.

"I have a hard time comprehending that, because the primary job of the commander in chief is to keep the country safe," Ryan said in an October 2014 interview on Fox News Channel.

"And you need to get from your intelligence community, your defence community, especially when we have troops in harm's way, what's going on."

Yet now, as President-elect Donald Trump refuses daily intelligence briefings, questions US spy agency conclusions about Russia interfering in the 2016 presidential election, praises Russian President Vladimir Putin and appears to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Ryan and other Republicans have Trump's back.
 

Far from strongly defending the US intelligence community, they're siding with the new leader of their party, even when he makes comments or takes stances that would seem anathema to the GOP.

It's a remarkable turnabout for a political party that cheered President Ronald Reagan's hard-line stance against the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union, unfailingly supports the military and joined with European allies in blistering Putin after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Asked at a press briefing yesterday whether he had full confidence in US intelligence agencies, now-Speaker Ryan offered a tepid endorsement that began and ended on a note of criticism.

"Well, they don't always get everything right. We've seen that clearly," Ryan said. "But I do have faith that our men and women in our intelligence community are doing an incredible job, sacrificing for our country. But there's always room for improvement."

Earlier yesterday, in an interview with WTAQ radio in Wisconsin, Ryan passed up the chance to distance himself from Trump's elevation of Assange in a tweet earlier this week, when Trump cited Assange's claim that Russia had not been the source of Democratic Party documents that WikiLeaks revealed.

Instead, even while criticising Assange, Ryan defended Trump, saying that what the president-elect is "rightfully concerned about is partisans are trying to use the Russian hacking incident to...Call into question the legitimacy of his victory.