AT LEAST HISS AND COMPANY WERE TRUE BELIEVERS...:

General James Mattis, Trump's pick to lead the Defense Department, K.T. McFarland, who was tapped for deputy national security adviser, Mike Pompeo, named to lead the C.I.A., and John Kelly, who was selected to head the Department of Homeland Security, are among those who have characterized U.S.-Russia relations in much more critical terms than the president-elect. While Trump has suggested thawing relations with Putin, and his nominee for secretary of state, ExxonMobil C.E.O. Rex Tillerson has proposed easing U.S. sanctions, Mattis has called Russia "the most dangerous" near-term security threat facing the U.S. "Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules and the West will try to follow all the rules," the former Marine Corps general said at a Heritage Foundation event last year--a dynamic he called "a very dangerous dichotomy." Kelly in 2015 warned Congress of Russia's growing presence in Latin America, arguing that there has been "a clear return to Cold War tactics" under Putin and that "Russia is using power projection in an attempt to erode U.S. leadership and challenge U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere," Politico reports. And while Trump has expressed skepticism that Russia was behind the high-profile cyber attacks on the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign last year, as the U.S. intelligence community has concluded, McFarland has said "we're at cyberwar with Russia" and "if it is true that Russia has been trying to influence and sort of jigger up and scramble our elections, then that's an act of war." Pompeo, contrary to Tillerson, has characterized the U.S. response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "far too weak" and advocated sanctions to keep Putin "in his box."

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