Ret. Admiral John Kirby Says Trump’s Attack on U.S. Intel ‘Scares’ Him: Reveals ‘Huge Gaps’ in National Security
Former admiral-turned-CNN military analyst John Kirby is disturbed with the national security and foreign policy chasm that seems to exist between President Trump and his top intelligence chiefs.
Trump has been going after his appointed intelligence officers by telling them they need to “go back to school” for disputing his recent talking points regarding ISIS, Iran and North Korea.
This was the focus of Kirby’s interview with Jim Sciutto and Poppy Harlow on Thursday, during which, he expressed concern about the president and national intelligence operating off of completely different facts.
“When the president distances himself like that from his intelligence chiefs, it worries me on two fronts. One: it’s not a different taking of the facts, it’s willful ignorance. So it concerns me that my president, my commander in chief, isn’t absorbing the context that these guys provide….Number two, I worry that it sends a strong message to our adversaries out there, particularly Russia and China, that there are huge gaps remaining in the national security decision-making apparatus in this country, and they can run right through those gaps and try to further sow discord and division among us. That really scares me.”
In terms of why Trump doesn’t fire his intelligence officers over their disagreements or if they will quit the president’s government, Kirby expressed his hope that intelligence workers are focused on producing solid information whether Trump adheres to it or not.
“This is the whole essence of the President Trump foreign policy…It’s all around him and his outsized ego and personality. Our allies and enemies are coming to grips with this too. One of the things I thought was fascinating was the degree to which our allies and partners are separating themselves from us because they know everything is about Donald Trump, he’s the epicenter of all the foreign policy. That’s really dangerous for us when you have a president who seems to be willfully ignorant and not willing to absorb the context of those professionals and factor them and their agencies into his national security decision making process.”
Watch above, via CNN.
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