In what ways are Donald Trump hurting America? There are many ways, actually, but here is a particularly frightening one - Trump has given security clearances on his whimsical say so to 25 people who had been denied clearances by the professionals whose job it is to vet officials for security clearances. We have people who have access to high level security secrets who shouldn't be having them! When will my conservative friends wake up to the damage their beloved president is doing to America?
Politico's Andrew Desiderio writes that a whistleblower in the White House Security Office, Tricia Newbold, has testified to the House Oversight Reform Committee:
"According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,”..."noting that her internal complaints were ignored even as she amassed a list of more than two dozen officials whose clearances were approved despite an initial denial....Newbold, who currently serves as the adjudications manager in the personnel security office, has worked at the White House for nearly two decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents. She was suspended without pay for two weeks earlier this year, an action she described as retaliation.... other whistleblowers have “corroborated” Newbold’s allegations, “but they were too afraid about the risk to their careers to come forward publicly."
This president actually thinks that the laws and rules don't apply to him. He thinks he has been made king. I know that each president usually expands the powers of the office, but this president's changes are not a difference in degree, but rather are a difference in kind. He is trying to be an authoritarian ruler. It is up to America to make sure he fails in his attempts to become the American Mussolini.
It is a courageous woman who has finally decided that she must speak up even though the price she will pay could be very steep. So many of the reforms needed in America are coming from brave women. Our country owes them a debt of gratitude, and the hits will just keep coming....
