Former intelligence chiefs criticize Trump over Russia

Two former top US intelligence officials criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for failing to address Russia for intervening in the presidential election, and one of them wondered if the president’s real purpose is to make Russia “big again” .

Neither former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper nor former CIA director John Brennan hid their anger over Trump’s derogatory remarks to intelligence agencies which concluded that Moscow deliberately interfered with last year’s presidential election And who tried to sow discord in the United States.

When asked if he thinks Trump takes Russia’s threat seriously, Clapper said he sometimes wonders if the White House agenda is focused on “making Russia big again,” matching the motto of the Trump campaign “Let’s make big to the United States again”.

In a long discussion at the Aspen Security Forum, Clapper and Brennan said Trump’s advisors must have been more hesitant to meet with a lawyer and other Russian characters.

In June, during the presidential campaign, Trump’s son, his campaign manager and son-in-law met with a Russian lawyer and a Russian lobbyist at Trump Tower in New York. Emails on the meeting showed that Donald Trump Jr. attended on the premise that he would receive material that the Russian government had on Hillary Clinton.

Brennan said the meeting was “deeply disconcerting” and wondered why Trump’s aides “would seize the opportunity” to meet with people to get information about Clinton.

Both voiced their disgust at Trump’s negative statements about intelligence agency assessments of Russia and the presidential election.

Brennan said he was upset that Trump said it was “a great honor” to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before his recent meeting in Europe.

“That is the Putin who attacked one of the fundamental pillars of our democracy, our system of elections, is that invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea and has repressed political opponents in Russia and caused the death of many of them,” he said. The former director of the CIA. “I think it was a very bad bargaining tactic.”

The post Former intelligence chiefs criticize Trump over Russia appeared first on CTN News.

from CTN News http://ift.tt/2gS0gTD
via IFTTT http://ift.tt/eA8V8J