Chris Van Hollen: “never before has a sitting President so maligned our intelligence community. President Trump has repeatedly belittled…”

“never before has a sitting President so maligned our intelligence community. President Trump has repeatedly belittled and ridiculed the work of intelligence officials, calling their assessments of Russia's hack into U.S. elections ``fake news.'' Over Twitter, President Trump accused intelligence officers of executing a Nazi-like smear campaign against him. President Trump has sided with the likes of Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence community. More disturbingly, President Trump seems to hold shallow views on critical intelligence questions like torture. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump constantly vowed to reinstate torture, asserting that only ``stupid people'' would think otherwise. In an interview with the New York Times, Mr. Trump admitted that he was ``surprised'' that Defense Secretary Mattis opposed torture, while adding that he would be ``guided by'' mass sentiments on torture. Mr. Trump's pronouncements on torture are dangerous, irresponsible, and rally our enemies. Senator Dan Coats has an enormous challenge ahead of him. President Trump removed the Director of National Intelligence from the National Security Council, marginalizing the intelligence community's essential role in informing national security decisions.…”