WASHINGTON: The United States stumbled towards the January 20 Inauguration Dayamid unprecedented clashes and mistrust between its President-elect Donald Trumpand his supporters on one side, and the liberal media and the country's intelligence agencies on the other.
Bitter invective and rancor centered on the publication of an unsubstantiated memo detailed Russia's alleged efforts to compromise Trump, a story the President-elect vehemently rejected, while blaming his own intelligence agencies and the media for perpetuating falsehoods.
On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the country's top spook, issued an extraordinary statement saying he had spoken to Trump to express ''profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security.''
''We also discussed the private security company document, which was widely circulated in recent months among the media, members of Congress and Congressional staff even before the Intelligence Community (IC) became aware of it. I emphasized that this document is not an IC product and that I do not believe the leaks came from within the IC,'' Clapper explained.
Trump jumped on the clarification to claim on Twitter that ''Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated,'' even though Clapper's statement clearly said, ''The IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions'' -- that Russia interfered in the U.S election process to manipulate a Trump victory.
''Part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security,'' Clapper's statement added, confirming in effect that intelligence agencies had briefed establishment figures about the Trump dossier, regardless of its veracity or otherwise.
The dossier among other things sketchily outlined a perverse act called ''golden showers'' allegedly involving Trump in a Moscow hotel, an attribution the President-elect dismissed contemptuously at a chaotic press conference on Wednesday with remarkable counters: he was well-aware there are hidden cameras designed to entrap foreign VIPs, and besides, he is a germophobe.
In a press conference that was as ridiculous as President Obama's farewell speech the previous night was sublime, Trump excoriated the media for airing the ''fake news". Most others referred to it second hand in the context of the alleged Russian subversion of the U.S election process, something Trump himself feebly acknowledged on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, even as media itself remained divided on the ethics of publishing unsubstantiated reports, the media house defended its action saying, ''Our presumption is to be transparent in our journalism and to share what we have with our readers ....We have always erred on the side of publishing.''
''In this case, the document was in wide circulation at the highest levels of American government and media,'' its editor wrote, a fact confirmed by Clapper and McCain.
While Trump was clearly outraged by the publication of unsubstantiated news, he himself is on weak ground, having fed falsehoods, rumors, and innuendo during his presidential campaign.
Among the stuff he has peddled on Twitter over the past year or so: ''An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.'' Another tweet referred to an alleged sex tape of a former Miss Universe, saying: ''Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a US citizen so she could use her in the debate?''
Meanwhile, the pro-Trump right wing media jumped on Republican Senator John McCain for passing on the dossier containing claims of a Russian blackmail plot against the president-elect to U.S intelligence agencies.
McCain confirmed it in a statement, saying '''Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public. Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI,'' setting the stage for some internecine battles with an already fractured GOP.
McCain reportedly got the dossier from a former British ambassador to Moscow, who in turn got it from a former British MI6 agent who was hired from a political opposition research firm in Washington.
Amid all these chaotic developments, Trump opened another can of worms on Thursday by urging his followers on Twitter to buy products from clothing retailer LL Bean, ostensibly because of the company's support for him during his presidential campaign.
Among the responses to his tweet: ''Wtf, @realDonaldTrump? Is the presidency an ad agency now?'' and ''I love it! What's next? Face tanning lotion?''
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