Former CIA Director, John Brennan joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard by Donald Trump to serve as Director of National Intelligence who has spent her career defending autocrats and dictations, has parroted Russian propaganda, and is setting off alarm bells in the American intelligence community ...

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-VA., former CIA officer and House Intelligence Committee member, joins Morning Joe to discuss President-elect Trump’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, arguing that Gabbard’s past defense of authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad poses a serious threat to U.S. intelligence. …

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., says Donald Trump's pick for Director of National Intelligence, fmr. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, is "likely a Russian asset". Rep. Wasserman Schultz also slams Trump's pick of fmr. Rep. Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, saying "most parents wouldn't trust Matt Gaetz with their teenager, nevermind with our entire system of justice."

... Gabbard has no intelligence experience and is accused of defending dictators and parroting disinformation. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Michael Leiter, former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center

But, come to think of it, there are also squirrels in my neighborhood who can be trusted more than our felon!

A good strategist will know that a Republican Senate won't shoot down every pick. In the interest of party solidarity, they are limited to rejecting a select few. The optimum strategy would be to intentionally make a few spectacularly bad selections as sacrificial candidates, to shield the otherwise controversial picks he actually wants.