and then, after doing both of those things to benefit the president, joseph mcguire got fired anyway. the president fired him anyway, because the deputy in mcguire's office who was put in charge of protecting our elections against foreign interference, she briefed congress and told them the truth about what russia was doing in 2020 and why. and so the president fired mcguire anyway. robert draper also reports that then homeland security secretary brigitte nielsen was abrated by the white house when she warned foreign diplomats they shouldn't interfere in the 2018 midterms. the president yelled at her for issuing that warning to other countries, including russia. draper also reports that the 2018 cyberattack that shut down the internet research agency in russia in 2018 and stopped them from interfering in the 2018 midterms, draper reports that was something that president trump had nothing to do with, and he did not order it. but this is just a remarkable story, particularly given the moment that we are in. the president bending the intelligence agencies to say what he wants said. to p

the next person installed in the director of national intelligence job is joseph mcguire. when he's installed in that job, the nie still wasn't finalized, and apparently the white house still wanted that assessment about russia to be changed. and then in september of last year, with mcguire in post because dan coats had been fired, in fact, that assessment was changed. quote, no longer did key judgment number two clearly state that russia favored the current president according to an individual who compared the two versions of the nie side by side. instead the new version concluded that russian leaders probably assessed that chances to improve relations with the u.s. will diminish under a different u.s. president. such a change, a former senior intelligence official said, would amount to a distinction without a difference and a way to make sure that joseph maguire doesn't get fired. but the distinction was, in fact, both real and important. a document intended to explain russia's playbook for the upcoming elections no longer included an explanation of what russia's immedia