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Michelle Cottle: The public servants who are guarding the republic

President Donald Trump is right: The deep state is alive and well. But it is not the sinister, anti-democratic cabal of his fever dreams. It is, rather, a collection of patriotic public servants — career diplomats, scientists, intelligence officers and others — who, from within the bowels of this corrupt and corrupting administration, have somehow remembered that their duty is to protect the interests, not of a particular leader, but of the American people.

Fiona Hill, Michael McKinley and the whistleblower who effectively initiated the impeachment investigation — when these folks saw something suspicious, they said something. Their aim was not to bring down Trump out of personal or political animus but to rescue the Republic from his excesses.