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Dead Drop: March 23

<p>dead drop</p>

COHN OF SILENCE: Apparently a big fan of on-the-job training, President Donald Trump (according to Politico) recently offered the job of CIA director to outgoing White House economic adviser Gary Cohn. Cohn, who has no apparent experience in intelligence, reportedly accepted the position, only to have Trump change his mind. On the surface, you wouldn’t think that a guy who just quit in a huff over tariffs would be offered – or accept the position. The job, of course, is being vacated as a result of Mike Pompeo’s nomination to be Secretary of State. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the president nominated career CIA officer Gina Haspel instead.

TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK, JOHN: Former CIA Director John Brennan is not a big fan of the decision to fire Andy McCabe just hours before the ex-FBI official would have qualified for full pension. In a tweet, Brennan said to the president: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes know, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.” Apparently, there were a lot of people who agreed. When last we looked, there were around a quarter million folks who “liked” the post. Among them was former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, who opined that it was not a “good idea to piss off” Brennan. But, as it is with most things these days, there was also a large number of people who took the opposite tack. Include in that number Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., who denounced Brennan’s comments as “disgraceful.” Fox News pointed out that Paul’s pique against Brennan goes back a long way. In 2013, Paul staged a 13-hour filibuster to try to block Brennan’s nomination to become CIA Director, in part because Brennan did not answer to Paul’s satisfaction whether the Obama administration would conduct drone strikes on Americans on U.S. soil. Speaking of Fox News, Tucker Carlson used Samantha Powers’ “don’t piss off John Brennan” line to suggest that is why some folks fear the “deep state.”

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