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'Homeland' Star Mandy Patinkin Slams Trump Over 'War' With Intelligence Community: 'You Can't Have It Both Ways'
Homeland star Mandy Patinkin said President Trump wants it "both ways" with the US intelligence community.
While on the one hand he denigrates any reports or conclusions that disprove his agenda, he praises any that do.
The veteran actor made his remarks during a press conference for the 8th and final season of the show Homeland.
Patinkin told reporters:
"I really have profound respect for [the CIA's] admissions of their mistakes."
"I have to call out the irony of the last three years… the contagion and cancer that affects the world globally. To go to war on the intelligence community… you can't have it both ways."
"You can't wake up in the morning and in your tweet say we had imminent knowledge that an event was going to take place, so that's why we did this, and in the same breath say that's from the intelligence community but then choose to ignore the intelligence community when they talk about Russian interference in the election."
"It doesn't work that way."
The Trump administration originally claimed the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was due to an "imminent threat."
But after the White House could produce no evidence a threat existed and further details emerged about the timeframe of the President's approval of the political assassination, they walked back their claims. By Monday, the President said it "doesn't really matter" that there was no imminent threat "because of [Soleimani's] horrible past."
Threat assessment and mitigation is a core function of the US intelligence community that Trump disparages each time they fail to march in lockstep with his agenda. Denigrating the civil servants who put Constitution, oath and country before Trump has been a recurrent theme for the 45th President.
Not everyone is a fan of that aspect of the Trump White House.
And President Trump was not the only one taken to task.
It seems there was an imminent threat being pointed out by those members of the law enforcement and intelligence community that weren't appointed by President Trump. And it was not Soleimani.