‘This Is a Cover Story’: Leon Panetta Says Trump Is Hiding the True Reason Behind Air Force One Switch

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta wasn’t buying President Donald Trump‘s excuse for switching planes for his journey home from the NATO Summit in Turkey.

On Wednesday, Shawn McCreesh of The New York Times asked Trump during a news conference in Ankara why he wasn’t flying the much-ballyhooed new Air Force One home.

The $400 million jet was a gift from the Qatari government and has long prompted security concerns.

“It’s flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases where we can show it to the people,” Trump said. “And we’ll be going home by normal methods. But we, we have it going to Europe to a couple of bases, actually one in particular, but it’s going to go to a couple of bases so the soldiers can see it because it’s truly magnificent.”

Panetta, who served under President Barack Obama, appeared on MS NOW’s The Moment with Katy Tur Wednesday — and he wasn’t buying it:

LEON PANETTA: You know, I’ve always been concerned about security issues with this kind of plane that’s built by another country, regardless of the fact that that country, we may have good relations with that country. The fact is that for from a security point of view, you have got to be concerned that there are going to be efforts to try to gather intelligence.

And I’m sure they’ve reviewed the whole plane. But as somebody involved with security, I would be very concerned about making sure that the president’s security is protected.

The only way to do that is by having that plane made in the United States and carrying the equipment that is provided by the United States, so that we can assure that the president is not only secure, but safe. So I don’t, I don’t think there’s any question that there are security concerns here. What they are we don’t know, but I’m sure that’s involved.

KATY TUR: Have you ever heard of a situation where the president switches planes like this? I mean, I know usually there are two air force ones. You know, one is not called air force one. When the president travels, there’s always a backup.

Usually there’s if there is a problem, there’s it’s a maintenance issue, right? Could it just be a maintenance issue?

PANETTA: Well, it’s a, it’s a brand new plane. If there’s a maintenance issue with a brand new plane that raises even more concerns. I don’t think this is about maintenance.

This is a cover story of some kind to try to deploy one plane to Britain and have the president return to the old plane that was Air Force One there. There’s more going on. I think the war in Iran may have some something to do with it. He is in Turkey. It’s right next to Iran.

There does have to be some real concerns about the president’s security. Even he himself basically admitted the concern about his personal security. So for for all of those reasons, I think that a decision was made to try to protect the safety of the presidency.

Watch above via MS NOW.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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