Ex-US intel chiefs hit back at Trump
‘Endangering national security’
WASHINGTON, Nov 13, (Agencies): Former US intelligence chiefs hit back at Donald Trump on Sunday, saying the president should be “ashamed” after he attacked as “political hacks” the intelligence leaders who concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
“Considering the source of the criticism, I consider that criticism a badge of honor,” former CIA chief John Brennan told CNN’s State of the Union, where he appeared alongside former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
“I found it particularly reprehensible that on Veterans Day, Donald Trump would attack and impugn the integrity and the character of Jim Clapper, who served in uniform for 35 years,” said the ex-CIA chief. “I think it’s something Mr Trump should be ashamed of,” he added.
Trump, now in the Philippines at the end of a 12-day Asia tour, had lashed out at Brennan, Clapper and former FBI director James Comey after facing stiff criticism at home for saying he believed President Vladimir Putin was sincere in insisting that Russia had not interfered in the US election.
“I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump said later aboard Air
Brennan
Force One.
But then in a surprising attack — especially from a president traveling abroad — Trump suggested that he placed greater credibility in Putin’s assurances than in the endorsement by Brennan, Clapper and Comey of the US intelligence agencies’ finding of Russian interference.
“I mean, give me a break — they’re political hacks,” Trump said, naming the three men and blaming Democrats for the talk of Russian collusion with his election campaign.
He said Comey, whom he fired in May as pressure was building over the Russia allegations, was “a liar,” and he reiterated that Putin had “vehemently” denied any meddling.
Response
Brennan and Clapper pushed back hard on Sunday, describing Trump’s tepid response to the alleged Russian meddling as endangering US national security.
“Putin is committed to undermining our system, our democracy and our whole process,” Clapper said. “And to try to paint it in any other way is, I think, astounding and, in fact, poses a peril to this country.”
Brennan added: “I think he’s giving Putin a pass. And I think it demonstrates to Mr Putin that Donald Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and to try to play upon his insecurities. Which is very, very worrisome.”
On Sunday, Trump revised his initial criticism a bit, saying of the Russian meddling charges: “As to whether I believe it or not, I’m with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership,” a phrase that excludes Clapper, Brennan and Comey.
But one of the current leaders, CIA Director Mike Pompeo — a Trump appointee — has reiterated his support for the finding of Russian interference.
Meanwhile, a day after being criticized by President Donald Trump, a former CIA director questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin was manipulating Trump with flattery during the president’s lengthy trip to Asia.
Trump’s trip was meant to be centered on trade and North Korea, and on Monday, he will talk with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has overseen a bloody drug war that has featured extrajudicial killings. But Trump remains dogged by things he has said, and not said, about Russia.
He tried to have it both ways Sunday on the issue of Russian interference in last year’s presidential race, saying he believes both the US intelligence agencies when they say Russia meddled and Putin’s sincerity in claiming that his country did not.
“I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election,” Trump said in Hanoi, Vietnam.
“As to whether I believe it, I’m with our agencies,” Trump said. “As currently led by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.”
But just a day earlier, he had lashed out at the former heads of the US intelligence agencies, dismissing them as “political hacks” and claiming there were plenty of reasons to be suspicious of their findings that Russia meddled to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Deriding
Former CIA director John Brennan, appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” with former national intelligence director James Clapper, said Trump was deriding them in an attempt to “delegitimize” the intelligence community’s assessment.
“I think Mr Putin is very clever in terms of playing to Mr Trump’s interest in being flattered. And also I think Mr Trump is, for whatever reason, either intimidated by Mr Putin, afraid of what he could do or what might come out as a result of these investigations,” Brennan said.
Clapper called the threat from Russia “manifest and obvious.”
“To try to paint it in any other way is, I think, astounding and, in fact, poses a peril to this country,” he said on CNN.
Brennan said Trump’s ambiguity on Russia’s involvement was “very, very worrisome from a national security standpoint.”
“I think he’s giving Putin a pass and I think it demonstrates to Putin that Donald Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and play upon his securities,” Brennan said.
Questions about whether Trump believes the assessment about Russian election-meddling have trailed him since January, when he said for the first time, shortly before taking office, that he accepted that Russia was behind the election-year hacking of Democrats that roiled the White House race.
A special counsel’s examination of potential collusion between Moscow and Trump campaign aides so far has led to indictments against Trump’s former campaign chairman and another top aide for crimes unrelated to the campaign, and a guilty plea from a Trump foreign policy adviser for lying to the FBI.
Multiple congressional committees are also investigating.
Trump told reporters traveling with him to Hanoi on Saturday that Putin had again vehemently denied the allegations. The two spoke during an economic conference in Danang, Vietnam. Trump danced around questions about whether he believed Putin but stressed Putin’s denials.