Where would we be without leaks?
We’d be in the dark, that’s where. We’d be getting our news, such as it is, from Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Dubke and the potty-mouthed Anthony Scaramucci. And, look, three of those four official mouthpieces (90 days, 88 days, 10 days) are already gone. Only Sanders (12 days and counting as press secretary) remains – for now.
Everything we know about the Trump White House, we know because somebody leaked.
If it weren’t for leaks, Donald Trump Jr. would never have admitted meeting with Russian dirt-slingers at Trump Tower. If it weren’t for leaks, Putin patsy Michael Flynn would never have been fired as national security adviser. If it weren’t for leaks, we would never have known that President Trump pressured FBI chief James Comey to back off. If it weren’t for leaks, we would never have known just how unhinged Trump was on the phone with the presidents of Australia and Mexico. Not one of those leaks revealed classified information. All of them told Americans things we desperately needed to know.
Since Inauguration Day, only one leak seems to have had a real impact on national security. That’s when President Trump revealed secret ISIS intel to Russians in the Oval Office, information our spies collected from Israel. Not good. Other than that, it’s been good leaks 99, bad leaks 0.
Now, Jeff Sessions, the attorney general Trump regretted appointing, has launched a crackdown on leaks. He will soon enough discover that the White House leaks so much because the staff is divided into so many factions. Each one is trying to undermine the others with leaks.
I’m not saying who’s been leaking to me. I will never say. I will go only this far: The lines have been constantly buzzing, and may the beautiful buzzing never cease.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Fox News Sunday. “We’re after the leaker, not the journalist,” said Rosenstein, who is supervising Robert Mueller’s Russian-hacking probe since Sessions recused himself.
But I have a suggestion for Sessions and Rosenstein.
If you guys really want to arrest dangerous leakers, why not start with the proven reckless one, the loose-lipped blabbermouth in the West Wing, 1600 Pennsylvania’s leaker-in-chief?
Metro columnist Ellis Henican is a veteran journalist, best-selling author and frequent commentator on CNN and other TV networks. Follow him on Twitter @henican.
