LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Red Scare Heats Up and Much, Much More. “Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence, also countered Trump: ‘The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers,’ Coats said in a statement. ‘We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security’.”