Former NSC officer, and current aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Ezra Cohen-Watnick has explored ways of surveilling staffers’ interactions with reporters to cut down on leaks, according to a Sunday Daily Beast report.
The targets would reportedly be those perceived to lack loyalty to President Donald Trump, especially Obama-era holdovers.
It is unclear if any system was put into place as a result of Cohen-Watnick’s ideas.
Cohen-Watnick, promoted by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, reportedly shares his old boss’ paranoia and desired to implement “insider threat detection” to root out damaging leaks that lead to unflattering stories about Trump.
Piece of work, that one. Way to boost morale, genius. And speaking of work, for one of the few times in my life I wish I were the head of a big, well-run company with thousands of good jobs. I’d tell the Obama holdovers they could have any job they felt they could do, just show up Monday. Nobody should have to be whiplashed from great to awful between one day and the next, or endure that stench just to pay the bills.
Because it makes sense to find the leakers rather than repair and prevent the problems.
Maybe I’m naive. I would expect that if you treat your professional staff with respect, they will carry out your policies, even if they disagree with them, and will not leak embarrassing details.
Now that’s a real Monday morning moral booster for WH staff if I ever heard one!
If they weren’t all so busy doing evil, destructive, stupid shit … then leaks wouldn’t matter so much.
Fascism, We Hardly Knew Ye