Marc Short: No intelligence Russia is trying to help Trump

Top Trump administration officials on Sunday pushed back on the notion that Russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 election to help President Trump after a recent briefing on Capitol Hill where lawmakers were reportedly told exactly that.

National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien said he hasn’t seen such intelligence.

“If it’s out there, it’s something I haven’t seen,” Mr. O’Brien said in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “Our message to the Russians is stay out of the U.S. elections. We’ve been very tough on Russia and we’ve been great on election security. So I think it’s a nonstory.”

He said he’s only seen secondhand “press reports” on a recent House briefing in which intelligence officials reportedly warned Congress that Russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 election to get Mr. Trump reelected.

“What I will tell you is, that I do think the Russians and the Chinese and others like to sow disruption in the American electorate,” Mr. O’Brien said. “That doesn’t mean because they prefer a particular candidate. It’s because these are autocratic regimes that don’t believe in democracy and they’d like to see Americans at each other’s throat.”

Shortly after the briefing, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was ousted in favor of Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany.

In a separate interview, Mr. O’Brien disputed the idea that Mr. Maguire was “pushed out” and pointed out that his legally permitted term as an acting director was to end in a few weeks.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, as does the president,” Mr. O’Brien said in an interview for CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, on Sunday likewise said Mr. Trump isn’t getting intelligence showing that Russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 campaign to help the president win reelection.

“There’s not intelligence that suggests that they are trying to help Trump,” Mr. Short said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Mr. Short accused House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, of selectively leaking information to the press, amid reports on the recent Capitol Hill briefing.

“That was a classified briefing that shouldn’t have been discussed,” he said. “The briefing the president received — the intelligence community has not told us that Russia is trying to reelect Donald Trump.”

“As far as the question of, ’is there information that says that Russia is trying to help elect Donald Trump?’ that is false information as far as the briefing that we have received,” he said.

The comments came after news broke late last week that Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont was told in a recent briefing that Russia is trying to intervene to boost Mr. Sanders’ bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Vermont senator condemned the effort, though Mr. O’Brien took a shot at Mr. Sanders’ going to the Soviet Union for a post-marriage celebration, potentially previewing a line of attack for Mr. Trump in the fall.

“Well, there are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president. That’s no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow,” Mr. O’Brien said.

In response, Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, said that Mr. O’Brien should steer clear of politics.

“Of course, it stands to reason that they want Donald Trump reelected, because he has been a gift to Russia,” Mr. Murphy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He continues to effectively deny that they have an ongoing political operation here in the United States that, by and large, is intended to support Donald Trump and his allies.”

Mr. Trump himself said he hadn’t been briefed on the issues involving Mr. Sanders and that he suspects the information was leaked to try to undermine Mr. Sanders’ candidacy.

“He had a great victory [in Nevada], but you know [what’s] happening, you can see the handwriting on the wall,” Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday. “What it could be is, you know, the Democrats are treating Bernie Sanders very unfairly and it sounds to me like a leak from Adam Schiff because they don’t want Bernie Sanders to represent them. It sounds like it’s ’16 all over again for Bernie Sanders.”