NOTE: The type of person who could save America

The next defense of free speech must come from within.

They hate it, but I’m not keeping my mouth shut. Thankfully, more people are joining me in calling out the Trump administration for historic attacks on free speech. I appeared on a Sunday show (MSNBC, here) alongside ex-FBI agent Michael Feinberg to discuss what happens when speaking truth to power comes at a cost. He’s the latest public servant to defy Trump’s efforts to muzzle critics.

Watch the full segment with my and Michael Feinberg. It’s the most candid I’ve been about Trump’s revenge tour — and what it means for our country.

Feinberg’s story matters, folks. A veteran FBI agent, he was essentially forced out of a the Bureau after being pressured over his friendship with someone on FBI Director Kash Patel’s “enemies list” (a list that includes me, too). His crime? Being buddies with someone Trump and Patel hate. What’s more, the FBI has reportedly been enforcing “loyalty polygraphs” on dozens of employees, hauling them in for questioning about whether they’ve insulted the Director, among other things.

That’s not loyalty to country. That’s loyalty to a person. The New York Times story about these loyalty polygraphs is chilling. It signals that the FBI, long a bulwark of truth, is cracking down to create a culture of unquestioning obedience. This sends a message through the Bureaus ranks, fast. Don’t question the Director or the President, or you’re toast. I’ve been through a polygraph. Trust me, you don’t shrug it off as a joke.

Meanwhile, the intelligence community is tumbling down the rabbit hole. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has launched a new “Director’s Initiative Group” (here’s why it’s so eerie that’s it’s called D.I.G. —>) which is seeking access to vast troves of intelligence emails and chat logs to sniff out internal dissenters and enforce partisan orthodoxy.

Just think about that for a moment. According to the Washington Post story, your own intelligence community — that you pay for, as a taxpayer — is angling to use domestic spy powers to police internal loyalty instead of prioritizing the safety and security of the American people.

From WaPo:

A special team created by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has expressed a desire to gain access to emails and chat logs of the largest U.S. spy agencies with the aim of using artificial intelligence tools to ferret out what the administration deems as efforts to undermine its agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter…The unprecedented interest in data by officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence startled some senior agency officials, who have expressed concerns about the counterintelligence and privacy risks of aggregating what could be a large amount of sensitive information that may include references to intercepts of electronic communications on overseas targets, said several U.S. officials and others familiar with aspects of the effort.

I know where this is headed…