(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s potential nominee for director of national intelligence, Representative Doug Collins, said he would turn down the position to focus on the Georgia senate race.“This is not a job that interests me; at this time, it’s not one that I would accept, because I’m running a Senate race down here in Georgia,” Collins said in an interview with Fox Business on Friday.Trump made the announcement during a flight to Las Vegas after a rally in Colorado Springs on Thursday night. The president has been on a tour of Western U.S. states for much of this week.Naming Collins to the post could have simplified a Senate race in Georgia, where the congressman has challenged Senator Kelly Loeffler.Republicans fear that an extended primary battle could hand the race to the Democrats, and perhaps endanger their majority in the Senate.Earlier this week, Trump said he’d appoint Ric Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, to be the next acting director of national intelligence.Grenell is to replace Joseph Maguire, a one-time Navy SEAL whom Trump appointed as DNI after the resignation last year Dan Coats, a former senator from Indiana. Maguire has held the job in an acting capacity and Trump was required by law to either replace him or ask the Senate to confirm him in the position by next month.According to the New York Times, Trump angrily confronted Maguire when he found out that intelligence officials had told a House briefing that Russia was intruding in this year’s election on the side of the president.Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, chose Loeffler in December to temporarily fill the seat of Senator Johnny Isakson, who was retiring, although Trump had urged him to pick Collins.Loeffler owns the WNBA’s Atlanta team and is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, the chief executive officer of Intercontinental Exchange, the parent firm of the New York Stock Exchange. She has pledged $20 million of her own fortune for her campaign.Collins, a lawyer and chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, helped lead the opposition to House Democrats’ impeachment of Trump as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. From that role, he has become well-known fixture on Fox News and other conservative outlets.He announced in January that he’d challenge Loeffler in November’s election for the last two years of the term Isakson relinquished because of health concerns.Collins said Friday that he would decline even though it was “humbling” and “amazing” that Trump mentioned him as a possible candidate for the post.(Updates with Collins quote in second paragraph.)\--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth WassermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

President Trump's replacement of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, a respected career official in a historically nonpartisan role, with U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, a vocal Trump loyalist with scant intelligence or management experience, raised eyebrows and some amount of alarm in Washington. Along with Maguire, acting Deputy DNI Andrew Hallman and ODNI General Counsel Jason Klitenic are heading for the exits. These aren't isolated moves."The president has been focused lately on officials who are allegedly disloyal to him, particularly at the Justice Department, the National Security Council, the Pentagon, and the State Department," The Washington Post reports, citing Trump aides. "And has heard from outside advisers that 'real MAGA people can't get jobs in the administration,' in the words of an administration official."Since Senate Republicans voted down his impeachment charges, Trump has sacked several people who testified or were otherwise linked to the impeachment inquiry — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his twin brother at the National Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Pentagon policy chief John Rood — and some he considered otherwise insufficiently loyal or pliable, like Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates, U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, and, "over fierce objections of some White House aides," Sean Doocey, the head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, the Post reports.By ousting Doocey and replacing him with Johnny McEntee, the president's 29-year-old former "body man" with no experience in government staffing, "Trump has centralized his efforts to purge the ranks of his perceived opponents," the Post reports. "Trump has instructed McEntee, who lost his job in 2018 over concerns about his online gambling, to install more loyalists in government positions."It's important to remember what "loyalist" means here, Adam Serwer writes at The Atlantic. "Public officials swear an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump. The purged officials were removed for their disloyalty to the latter, not the former." In other words, "if you don't agree with the king, you're gone," Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) told The Daily Beast. "That has a chilling effect on people being willing to tell the truth, and that makes us less safe."More stories from theweek.com A moderate's 2020 lament The stunning Southern Baptist controversy over Donald Trump and Russell Moore, explained Elizabeth Warren placed an ad in billionaire Sheldon Adelson's newspaper telling him what he'd pay under her wealth tax

This is the editor's letter in the The Week magazine.Bill Barr has some concerns. He got his job as attorney general by telling President Trump that the Constitution gives him "illimitable discretion" over Justice Department prosecutions; therefore, Trump's numerous attempts to block or end the Mueller investigation did not constitute obstruction of justice. Trump's Article II authority is so expansive, Barr has stated, that neither Congress nor the courts can interfere in his policy decisions or compel him to release information. A delighted Trump has taken Barr's imperial theory of the presidency both seriously and literally. "Article II," he has said, "allows me to do whatever I want as president." Barr, however, is now complaining that the president's tweeting about criminal cases was "making it impossible for me to do my job." Dr. Frankenstein has his regrets.The president, on the other hand, feels freed of all restraints. Proclaiming himself the country's "chief law-enforcement officer," Trump has demanded that a federal judge order a new trial for Roger Stone, a convicted felon who, abundant evidence shows, served as Trump's secret conduit to WikiLeaks and Russian military hackers in 2016. Trump has also raged at the injustice of a prison term for former campaign manager Paul Manafort (another conduit to the Russians) and wants his former national security adviser Michael Flynn — who hid a $600,000 payment from the Turkish government — to go free, too. Sooner rather than later, Trump will pardon them all. This week, Trump suddenly issued a blizzard of pardons to swampy public figures convicted of bribery, tax fraud, corruption, and making false statements — crimes that, for some reason, Trump doesn't consider serious. Why would he stick his neck out for crooks and con men as he heads into a re-election campaign? After surviving the Mueller investigation, impeachment, and innumerable scandals, Trump has concluded he has "an absolute right" to do whatever he wants, just as Bill Barr told him. And he may be right.More stories from theweek.com Former CIA Director John Brennan says 'we are now in a full-blown national security crisis' South Korean mayor tells 2.5 million to stay home as coronavirus cases surge The growing crisis in cosmology

President Trump berated outgoing acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire on Valentine's Day because he was upset over an election security intelligence briefing for the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 13, several major newspapers reported late Thursday. Trump was reportedly angry that Shelby Pierson, the election threat czar at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, had briefed lawmakers without his knowledge, and also that she had told them Russia is currently interfering in the 2020 election with the goal of helping Trump win re-election.Specifically, Trump was furious that Pierson had briefed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), The Washington Post reports. "Trump erroneously believed that Pierson had given the assessment exclusively" to Schiff, and he "also believed that the information would be helpful to Democrats if it were released publicly." It isn't clear where Trump got the impression Schiff was the only person at the bipartisan briefing, but "Trump learned about Pierson's remarks from Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the committee's ranking Republican and a staunch Trump ally," the Post reports. Nunes was at the briefing.Trump has "fixated on" Schiff, "pummeling him publicly with insults and unfounded accusations of corruption," since Schiff started leading Trump's impeachment, The New York Times reports. In October, Trump even "refused to invite lawmakers from the congressional intelligence committees to a White House briefing on Syria because he did not want Mr. Schiff there."Accounts differ on how much the election interference briefing weighed on Trump's decision to replace Maguire with Richard Grenell, a loyalist who is currently U.S. ambassador to Germany — the Post says the incident "ruined Maguire's chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief," while two administration officials tell the Times the timing was coincidental and Maguire was never a contender — but "Trump's suspicions of the intelligence community have often been fueled by Nunes, who was with the president in California on Wednesday when he announced on Twitter that Grenell would become the acting director," the Post reports.Some of Maguire's top aides are leaving, too, including acting deputy DNI Andrew Hallman, the Times reports, paving the way for "Grenell to put in place his own management team." Kash Patel, the Nunes aide "who helmed efforts to push back against the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, has just started working in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence," The Daily Beast reports.More stories from theweek.com Bernie Sanders' subtle warning to the Democratic Party How much will Medicare-for-all save Americans? A lot. Bloomberg says he'll release women from NDAs

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia is interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Donald Trump re-elected, The New York Times and The Daily Beast report. During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Trump’s Republican allies reportedly challenged the conclusions of the intelligence community, arguing that under Trump the U.S. has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security.Russians Think Triumphant Trump Is More Their Man Than EverBut Russia’s state media—tightly controlled by the Kremlin—contradicts that assertion all the time. It has consistently conveyed the message that Trump’s election has proven exceedingly beneficial for the Kremlin.Indeed, Trump’s presidency is so valuable for Vladimir Putin that even “tough” sanctions are minor by comparison. The Chekist in the Kremlin is willing to make temporary sacrifices in order to keep such a disruptive figure in charge of the mightiest country in the world, and Russian state media repeatedly makes the point that Russia’s gamble will continue to pay off, since the Kremlin is holding, as it were, the trump card. Russian experts and pundits on state television frequently express their desire to see President Trump re-elected. Appearing on Russia’s popular state television news talk show 60 Minutes last October, political analyst Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak gushed: “I look at Trump and think: ‘May God grant him good health—and another term.’ This is a great situation for Russia... may he flourish and get re-elected... Trump is a great candidate. I applaud him... For America, this isn’t a very good president.”* * *POST-ELECTION CONCESSIONS* * *Once Trump is re-elected—which, according to Russian experts and pundits, is a fait accompli—they expect U.S. concessions on every front, from the removal of sanctions imposed after Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula and backed a separatist war in Ukraine, to restoration of access to diplomatic compounds the U.S. seized after Russia’s effort to murder a defector in Britain.Appearing on a state TV show, The Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, last week, Russian politician Sergey Stankevich said Trump is “obligated” to accept Putin’s invitation to attend the Victory Day parade in Moscow this May. As he explained, “Trump owes us a serious debt… from back when he privately met with our president [Putin] in Helsinki one-on-one. They made a deal about creating working groups of entrepreneurs to discuss business, sanctions, de-escalating tensions, disarmaments, etc.” Russian state media has taken Trump’s side at every turn and fully supported him throughout the impeachment. Kremlin-controlled news media outed the Ukraine whistleblower, referred to the U.S. president affectionately as “Donald Ivanovych,” “Trumpushka,” and as an “agent” of the Kremlin. Normally, spymasters seek to shroud in secrecy their relations with those who wittingly or unwittingly serve their interests. But Russian state media openly gloats about the Kremlin’s influence over Trump, believing that he can endure the exposure without repercussions, and by flaunting the Kremlin’s sway with the White House, Russia further weakens U.S. democracy, which has always been one of its main pursuits.Appearing on The Evening With Vladimir Soloviev in March 2019, Karen Shakhnazarov, CEO of Mosfilm Studio, noted: “They say Trump is making Russia great. That’s basically accurate… The chaos brought by Trump into the American system of government is weakening the United States... So when they say that Trump is weakening the United States—yes, he is. And that’s why we love him... The more problems they have, the better it is for us.”* * *TARGETING BIDEN AND UKRAINE* * *Kremlin-controlled media offered their full-throated support for Trump’s pursuit of derogatory information that could be used to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden. State-television hosts not only helped to spread conspiracy theories about Biden and his son, but also threatened Ukraine, trying to push it toward complicity in Trump’s efforts. In November 2019, the host of Russian news talk show 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, warned: “If Trump gets re-elected, and you don’t investigate Biden... [Ukraine] won’t get anything from America. Not a thing.” Two months earlier, Dmitry Kiselyov, the host of Russia’s most popular Sunday news program Vesti Nedeli urged Trump to keep digging in Ukraine for “the sweetest” kompromat of all: “Proving that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the U.S. elections.”The resulting situation presents a boon for the Kremlin on multiple fronts: fraying confidence in the integrity of the U.S. elections and the rule of law in America, combined with the weakening of U.S. relations with Ukraine, as well as with other strategic partners and allies. The pursuit of “Biden dirt” is widely seen in Russia as a successful operation. Last week, pundits and experts on the Soloviev show described Joe Biden as a “political corpse,” openly hoped that Mike Bloomberg would run as a third-party candidate.* * *BERNIE BROS* * *They also said President Trump should wish the best of luck to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, whose candidacy brings “nothing but joy” for the incumbent.Reporting for channel Rossiya-1’s Saturday News Show on Feb. 8, Valentin Bogdanov pegged Sanders as an ideal opponent who can be taken down easily by Trump. The host of the program, Sergey Brilyov, surmised that “Socialist Sanders” simply “can’t compete” with the current occupant of the White House. This month, Izvestia, which was formerly the newspaper of record in the Soviet Union, described Trump as “the only real contender” in the upcoming presidential election. Konstantin Blokhin, research fellow with the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told Izvestia that in spite of his popularity, Sanders can’t win, because he is too old and too radical for most Americans.Appearing on The Evening With Vladimir Soloviev this month, political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev concluded that barring unforeseen circumstances, Trump “already won his re-election.” Last year, following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report,  Popov, the 60 Minutes host, promised: “Soon, we will help you elect Trump once again. Just like the last time. Get ready!” After the conclusion of the impeachment hearings this month, Russian state television channel Rossiya-1 host Artyom Sheynin exclaimed: “Trump forever!” and asked: “Is America finished?”* * *HATE AMERICA, LOVE TRUMP* * *The continued pro-Trump tendencies of the Russian state media stand in sharp contrasted to its virulent anti-American propaganda. While the Trump presidency is considered to be highly beneficial for the Kremlin, the United States remains Russia’s biggest adversary. Trump is therefore seen as one of the best tools the Kremlin has in its efforts to undermine, discredit, and ultimately destroy the American way of life. And Russian state media openly praises Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, predicting civil war in the United States in the event he is not re-elected. Russian experts and pundits also have divined that a Trump dynasty will rule the United States for decades to come, with the president’s children following in his footsteps.   Russia’s State TV Calls Trump Their ‘Agent’Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev this month, Konstantin Zatulin, a leading figure in Putin’s United Russia party, said that Russia has been fighting “information wars” against the West for the longest time, but now they’re much more technologically advanced. During the same show, Boris Yakemenko, one of the chief architects of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi, asserted that World War III between the United States and Russia is already in progress and is playing out in social media. This fits with the reported conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that “the Russians have been preparing—and experimenting—for the 2020 election... They have made more creative use of Facebook and other social media. Rather than impersonating Americans as they did in 2016, Russian operatives are working to get Americans to repeat disinformation.”The task of getting Americans to repeat the Kremlin’s talking points is an easy errand from the standpoint of the Russian state media. Back in 2017, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia’s state-controlled broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today), described Americans as poorly educated and ignorant. Simonyan concluded: “They’ll believe anything!” * * *U.S. IGNORANCE=RUSSIA BLISS* * *The Russian state-operated news agency RIA Novosti recently noted that suspension of disbelief is easy, since “only one in six Americans can find Ukraine on the map, only one in four can find Iran, and about a quarter of American voters aged 24 to 35 are not sure that the Earth is round.”Perennially insulted by the descriptions of Russia as “a gas station masquerading as a country” or “Zimbabwe with nukes” because of its economic dependence on oil production and its well-armed autocracy, the Kremlin’s mouthpieces inadvertently reveal the reasons for boasting about election interference and other anti-Western active measures. This month, Ivan Danilov wrote for RIA Novosti that Russia—“the country that ‘organized Brexit’ and ‘elected Trump’—is by definition “a global hegemon.”Such remarks have a purpose in state policy. As Trump’s former Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, testified in October 2019 the Kremlin often sends signals “publicly through the press and through press articles—that’s the way that they operate.” When the Russian state media openly brags about interfering in the U.S. elections, the desired effect is akin to showing off Russia’s new and purportedly “invincible” high-tech weapons of war. This month Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that “Russia’s foreign policy concept since 2000 has made it possible for us to develop principally new qualities on the international arena, to restore our status as a great power.”The Kremlin wants to be perceived as a force to be reckoned with, fostering an atmosphere devoid of accountability for Russia’s human-rights violations, foreign invasions, land grabs, and assassinations. In the style of “fake it till you make it,” Putin is determined to persuade the world that resistance is futile and the Kremlin is omnipotent. Every denial of Russian election interference coming out of the White House brings Putin one step closer to the fulfillment of his goals. Every election-security bill that is blocked by the GOP in the Senate gives advantage to our foreign adversaries—and they are not sick of winning.           Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

What better platform than The Ellen DeGeneres Show for Pete Buttigieg to share his unvarnished thoughts about Rush Limbaugh? During the 2020 hopeful’s swing through Los Angeles on Thursday, he made his second appearance on the daytime talk show, this time near the top of the Democratic field. With that increased confidence, Buttigieg was eager to fire back at Limbaugh, who recently made some seriously homophobic comments about the candidate and later revealed that President Trump himself told him to never apologize. “Look, I guess he just has a different idea of what makes a man than I do,” Buttigieg said of Limbaugh, who had questioned his masculinity next to Trump. “I’m not going to take lectures on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or anybody who supports Donald Trump, frankly. You know, when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan, Donald Trump was working on season seven of Celebrity Apprentice.”“And since when is strength about the chest-pounding and the loud-mouthed guy at the end of the bar?” he asked. “The strongest people I know are not the loudest people—they’re the ones who have the deepest sense of who they are and what they value and what they care about. And one of those people, by the way, one of the strongest people I know is my husband, Brad Pitt.” Trevor Noah Exposes Team Trump’s Hypocrisy on Nancy Pelosi and Rush LimbaughWith that line, the camera cut to Buttigieg’s actual husband Chasten, who was seated in the studio audience next to Ellen DeGeneres’ wife Portia de Rossi. Ironically, Trump also referenced Pitt in his latest rambling rally Thursday night, calling him a “little wise guy” for making a pointed impeachment joke during his Oscars acceptance speech.Later in the episode, which will air in full on Friday, Buttigieg answered a series of lightning-round questions from DeGeneres including which fellow Democratic candidate he would like to be stuck on a deserted island with (Bernie Sanders) and how he would rate his college classmate Colin Jost’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live on a scale from one to 10 (6.5).Buttigieg also had a message for Judge Judy Shiendlin, who recently came out in support of Mayor Mike Bloomberg: “I would like to file an appeal, and I would like to enter [into] evidence the content of the Las Vegas debate.” Applauding that answer, DeGeneres said, “I learned a lot.” Jimmy Kimmel Rips Trump for Honoring Rush Limbaugh During State of the UnionRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday condemned President Donald Trump's reported actions over an intelligence briefing given to lawmakers on Russian interference in U.S. elections, saying members should denounce any efforts to discredit the intelligence community.

"American voters should decide American elections — not Vladimir Putin. All Members of Congress should condemn the President’s reported efforts to dismiss threats to the integrity of our democracy & to politicize our intel community," Pelosi tweeted Thursday night.

Her remarks came after the New York Times reported that the House Intelligence Committee received a Feb. 13 briefing that Russia planned to interfere in the 2020 elections, including the Democratic primaries.

The report said Trump expressed anger toward acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire for greenlighting the briefing, suggesting Democrats would use the information against him as he seeks reelection.

Trump announced Wednesday that his fierce ally and current ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, will take over from Maguire.

Pelosi revealed on Twitter that House members would have an election security briefing on March 10.

Trump was also reportedly angry that House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff was in the intelligence briefing. Schiff was one the Democrat impeachment managers during Trump's Senate impeachment trial and a frequent punching bag at Trump's rallies.

Schiff also responded to the Times report Thursday night, tweeting: "We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections. If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling. Exactly as we warned he would do."

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.