#Grenell says Trump is working to break DC’s insular political culture

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Richard Grenell
Milos Miskov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The White House’s former acting Director of National Intelligence said the political struggle, as opposed to being between Republicans and Democrats, is now between Washington and the rest of America, and President Trump is leading that fight.

“The fact of the matter is, we have a real problem in Washington, D.C., because it’s a system that it no longer is Republicans and Democrats pushing against each other to create good policy. It’s a fight between Washington and the rest of America,” Richard Grenell said on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Monday.

“What we have [is] a system in Washington where people get jobs if you’re there, if you know someone and you work your way up, and it’s like musical chairs from one agency to another,” he said. “There is no outside thought, there’s no outside perspective.”

But Grenell said the president is knocking down those insular barriers.

“He’s breaking their system,” he said. “He doesn’t play by the rules.”

Grenell, who spent two years as the ambassador to Germany before being tapped by Trump as acting director, pointed to his own experience in Washington.

“I saw that at ODNI,” he said. “I saw that by entering the intelligence world, and senators from the Democratic Party saying, ‘You have no experience, what are you doing — why should you be there?’”

Grenell, who stepped down from the post last month, singled out Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, for criticizing his ability to do the job.

“He said that I wasn’t qualified,” Grenell said of Warner. “I actually am a receiver of intelligence, and [I’m] an expert on the consumer part of the intelligence and how to utilize it, but that perspective is never brought to Washington.”