Fmr Intel Official Speaks Out Against Trump: He Dismisses Facts, Data ‘In Ways That I Do Think Puts Us at Risk’

Robert Cardillo, former head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency who has served under six presidents, is speaking out against President Donald Trump and saying that “four more years would be devastating.”

In an op-ed for the Denver Post, Cardillo writes:

Since I have been eligible to vote, I have never registered with a political party. I remain an independent with a history of voting for candidates I believe in — I focused on their policy and not their party. Before this election, I have never spoken out for or against a candidate for any office.

But I can be silent no longer…

I have briefed him up close — and I have seen and felt the effect of his faults on our nation’s security. Out of respect for the confidential nature of Oval Office conversations, I will not provide details. Suffice to say that the person you see presiding over COVID-19 press conferences is the same one in the privacy of his office. He has little patience for facts or data that do not comport with his personal world view. Thus, the conversations are erratic and less than fully thoughtful.

Cardillo spoke to Wolf Blitzer Friday and said he felt the need to speak out this time before “I find the president’s behavior and his approach and his thought process to be putting our national security at risk.”

He said Trump is guided by “internal instincts” and generally tends to “deflect or deter or deny when he runs into issues, facts, figures, that may not comport with the internal compass that he has.”

Cardillo added that it’s not unusual for there to be “tension” with respect to intelligence matters, but “what I find unnatural with this president is that the way he just discards and discounts data, facts, and assessments in ways that I do think puts us at risk.”

One moment he was disturbed by in particular was Trump’s infamous moment during that Helsinki summit dismissing the intel community assessment on Russian interference.

You can watch above, via CNN.