Stage intelligence intervention

Schumer urges Coats to stage intelligence intervention with Trump

By BRENT D. GRIFFITHS

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer swiped at President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening, urging America's top intelligence official to stage an intervention and educate the commander in chief about how important it is for him to back the U.S. intelligence community.

"I believe it is incumbent on you, Director Wray and Director Haspel to insist on an immediate meeting with the President to educate him about the facts and raw intelligence underlying the Intelligence Community assessments ...," Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to Dan Coats, the U.S. director of national intelligence.

Coats, who served with Schumer in the Senate, publicly undercut Trump's statements on Tuesday during a Senate Intelligence Community hearing where he spoke about ISIS' strength, North Korea nuclear weapons program and the Iran nuclear deal in vastly different terms than Trump does.

Coats was joined by FBI Director Chris Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel, all of whom became the target of Trump's ire Wednesday morning for their statements.

Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning that it was time for the advisers he appointed to "go back to school." The president's taunt was the latest in an ongoing feud he's had with the broader U.S. intelligence community dating back to his time as a presidential candidate.

Schumer added that Trump's criticism of Coats "is putting you and your colleagues in an untenable position and hurting the national interest in the process."

"I applaud you and your colleagues in the Intelligence Community for being clear-eyed about the threats we face, but you cannot allow the President's ill-advised and unwarranted comments today to stand," Schumer wrote, urging Coats to find a way to make clear to Trump just how his words cause problems.