Political fallout from public disclosure of Michael Flynn's unmaskers
Joe Biden, James Comey among Obama administration officials who unmasked Michael Flynn; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.
MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell appeared to downplay major news surrounding the revealed list of Obama officials who requested the "unmasking" of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, suggesting those sounding the alarm are "gaslighting."
After acting DNI Richard Grenell declassified the list of those who sought the identity of the incoming Trump appointee in surveilled conversations with the Russian ambassador, Republican lawmakers then revealed who made such requests which included former Vice President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper, former U.N. ambassador Samatha Power, former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough.
As the news broke on Wednesday, New York Times reporter and MSNBC contributor Charlie Savage pointed out how "routine" it is to unmask Americans who interact with foreign officials and how common such practices have been during the Trump administration.
"Under US surveillance rules, unmasking an American's identity in a report derived from foreign-intelligence surveillance is routine when necessary to understand (e.g., who was the Russian ambassador talking to?). The NSA did so 10,000 times last year, nearly 17,000 times in 2018," Savage tweeted.
Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, seemed to agree.
"10 thousand unmasking last year, 17 thousand in 2018. Necessary and routine. Can people please stop trying to gaslight us?" Mitchell pleaded.
While the act of requesting the unmasking of American citizens may follow standard protocol, critics point to the illegal leak of Flynn's name, which was classified information at the time, to The Washington Post in a January 2017 report.
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The breaking news did not get much coverage on major TV networks. Broadcast networks ABC and NBC completely ignored the unmasking list during their evening programs. "World News Tonight" and "NBC Nightly News" kept much of its focus on the latest developments in the coronavirus outbreak while "CBS Evening News" briefly addressed the controversy.
While MSNBC briefly mentioned the news in the afternoon, CNN waited nearly four hours before covering the unmasking on air