it's not like it was a convenient time for the president to put ric grinnell in this job, also we're hearing it's just a coincidence he's being moved into this position at the time the assessment came out. >> mcguire is on his way out, the president has picked a loyalist to replace him, grinnell is incredibly experienced and we're learning -- incredibly inexperienced. and now we're learning about a russian threat for 2020. is this a recipe for disaster at this point? >> look, it is. if the intelligence committee doesn't feel like they can tell the truth to the leaders of this country about a looming threat, right, with the election coming just in a few months and everybody knows this is exactly what they were looking for, they need to be on guard for it. this is what this country needs to make sure we prevent. and if the intelligence community believes they cannot speak the truth to the president and to some of the leaders in congress then that is really bad for us to be able to meet that threat head on. this is exactly what the adversaries of this country look toward. they want to m

ric grinnell. what do you think of him? >> i love ric grinnell.nity undermining him and leaking to the press. he needs somebody sitting atop that giant mess making sure the intelligence community supports the president's goals and u.s. policies. ric grinnell will do that. lou: i agree. ric grinnell has been loyal to the president. fiercely without compromise. my had's off to him for the way he performed in germany, and i think as to you, i'm delighted hear you say that. a great dni. the president right now, he has a balancing act to carry out with china. the issue of both national security at the same time dealing with the coronavirus, the trade deal, the historic trade deal, it couldn't be more complex, could it? >> he focused on china from the start saying they were manipulating currency and cheating for a long time hurting the united states. now he's got a chance to show a little compassion in helping with the coronavirus and hopefully cop out the other side with some humanitarian credit from this and also a bit of a good trade deal. >> and the

i want to turn to trump bringing in ric grinnell. choice as acting dni? >> i think it's a brilliant choice. ric grinnell understands the importance of not letting the world use huawei and the chinese government to build the 5g internet of the future. he talked about it and he understands the significance. as director of national intelligence, that will be one of his most important jobs. secondly he knows germany and europe will be the battlegrounds. >> i think it's crazy to listen to the left complaining about bring nell because he's a trump loyalist. the idea that trump should have someone who disagrees with number that position. only the left could be that stupid. and what about the first openly gay serving cabinet member. it's their usual hypocrisy. lou: hypocrisy and cynical politics. and grinnell, one of the things i admire about the man, he has been straightforward with the german and european government. they know where the president stands because that's what grenell is saying. he speaks for this president and the nation. >>

appointment, the temporary appointment and one of the things he mentioned is the idea that ric grinnell is like the bill barr for the dni. that tells you a lot about what they're looking for and what they believe they're going to get from this temporary appointment. >> yeah. shawn, the fbi director, robert mueller himself, have warned that russia is interfering in 2020. listen to this. >> the russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections through -- >> is it fair to say -- >> -- foreign influence. >> they're doing it as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign. >> shawn, has the trump administration done anything to prepare for this? >> not enough, don. i mean, look, you know, after the 2016 presidential election we went through sort of phases of grief with regard to what happened in 2016, initially the president simply would not accept it, did not acknowledge it and attempted to shift blame to others for interference in the 2016 presidential election. we've kind of gone through these different phases to where we're at a point now where whi

grinnell in that position. >> bret: thank you, we will have more on ric grenell and his position a little later in the show. we will bring in our panel early. marc thiessen, susan page and byron york. we should point out "the washington post" first reported the oval office confrontation between president trump and the dni maguire. let's start there with this story, what we make of it, it's breaking, byron, you have talked to people on capitol hill. >> there's two aspects to the story, whatever the president did upon hearing the story and what the briefing actually consisted of. apparently a lot of people from the director of national intelligence went to capitol hill, a lot of staff and republicans, some republicans felt it was designed to leak and they told the lawmakers that russia is interfering in the 2020 election. what you don't see in any of these published accounts is what russia is doing. there are no details at all about that and members and anyone who's in the briefing are not allowed to talk about it. republicans apparently were deeply skeptical, you could have a race between donald trump and be