Obama-era intelligence officials slam prez
WASHINGTON — Two former senior intelligence officials yesterday offered an extraordinary critique of President Trump’s mode of dealing with foreign leaders, portraying the president as cowed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and too susceptible to flattery by rivals likely seeking to manipulate him.
The criticism by former CIA Director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper — both Obama administration appointees — followed months of tension between the White House and the intelligence community over the president’s reluctance to publicly accept intelligence assessments that Russia sought to sway the 2016 election in his favor.
Over the weekend, Trump implied that he took Putin at his word that Russia had not acted to influence the U.S. election. Trump also said that raising the issue was insulting to Putin. Yesterday, in Hanoi, Trump partially walked back those remarks. “I’m with our agencies, especially as currently constituted” — implying he still mistrusts the Obama appointees, who he described the day before as “political hacks.”
Brennan, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the president’s stance, even somewhat softened, was incompatible with established facts.
“It’s very clear that the Russians interfered in the election, and it’s still puzzling as to why Mr. Trump does not acknowledge that and embrace it and also push back hard against Mr. Putin,” Brennan said.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, also on CNN, countered that Trump was “not getting played by anybody” and that it was “ridiculous” to suggest he was being manipulated by Putin or anyone else.