Republicans 'went nuts' on intelligence officials who told them Russia is ready to support Trump's re-election: report

On Thursday, an explosive new report showed that not only was Russia planning once again to sabotage the U.S. presidential election, but that President Donald Trump was furious when intelligence officials informed House Democratic investigators of this threat — shortly before he announced he would be replacing the acting Director of National Intelligence with a hardcore partisan loyalist.

But according to The Daily Beast, Trump wasn't the only one who was outraged. House Republicans who received the briefing also objected to the intelligence.

"The meeting, which took place on February 13, was conducted for the House Intelligence Committee by an aide to outgoing acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maquire [sic]," wrote Spencer Ackerman, Betsy Swan, Erin Blanco, and Sam Stein. "According to a legislator who was present, the aide, Shelby Pierson, Maguire’s election security chief, described a Russian elections-intrusion effort that never stopped from 2016."

The report continued: "'The Republicans [on the committee] went nuts,' over Pierson’s presentation, the member told The Daily Beast. A second source familiar with the briefing said that Republicans didn’t understand why the Kremlin would try to boost Trump, since he had been so tough on Russia, in their view. Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) and Chris Stewart (R-UT) — who according to The Times, has been a Trump favorite to replace Maguire — were particularly vocal in their skepticism, the member said."