MEHEK COOKE: Hey Dems, What Happened To ‘Trust The Intel Community’?
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
The mainstream press spent years treating skepticism of the FBI and CIA as a moral failing, as if asking questions about surveillance, leaks, or politicized briefings was somehow disloyal. Now that the intelligence community’s judgments sometimes cut against Democrats’ preferred narratives, the same outlets suddenly remember that agencies are staffed by fallible people. That framing misses the central conservative point: **trust is earned, not granted**.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
One of the great hypocrisies of the Trump era is Democrats’ selective faith in the intelligence community. For years, Democrats demanded blind trust in the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department.
Original source:
Read at IjrHow We See It
New Republican Times Editorial Board
The mainstream press spent years treating skepticism of the FBI and CIA as a moral failing, as if asking questions about surveillance, leaks, or politicized briefings was somehow disloyal. Now that the intelligence community’s judgments sometimes cut against Democrats’ preferred narratives, the same outlets suddenly remember that agencies are staffed by fallible people.
That framing misses the central conservative point: trust is earned, not granted. A free country cannot run on institutional deference alone, especially when powerful bodies operate behind secrecy and benefit from friendly coverage. Conservatives are not anti-law enforcement. We are pro rule of law and pro public accountability.
The standard should be consistent: defend lawful intelligence work, demand transparency where possible, punish misconduct, and keep politics out of prosecutions. In the end, the principle at stake is public trust in institutions that must be both strong and restrained.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.