Former CIA director John Brennan said U.S. intelligence services may no longer trust President Donald Trump enough to provide him with the most classified information.
Brennan reacted to Trump’s news conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin by accusing the president of treason, and he doubled down on the allegation Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“What Mr. Trump did (Monday) was to betray the women and men of the FBI, the CIA and NSA and others and betray the American public,” Brennan said. “That’s why I use the term, this was nothing short of treason, because it is a betrayal of the nation. He’s giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”
He called on Republicans to stand up to the president — or leave the GOP.
“It needs to stop,” he continued. “Mr. Trump needs to understand there will be consequences for him, too. I hope those that voted for Mr. Trump in good conscience will see he’s leading us down a very dangerous path.”
Brennan cannot imagine what the two leaders discussed during a private, one-on-one meeting that lasted for more than two hours, because he said Trump was clearly “out of his depth” against the Russian president.
“I still shake my head trying to understand what was discussed during the two-hour one-on-one, what was discussed between the two sides in their bilateral meeting,” Brennan said. “We only saw what Mr. Trump said during the press conference. I can’t even imagine what he said behind closed doors. I can’t imagine what he said to Mr. Putin directly. I am very concerned about what type of impact it might have on our intelligence community and on this country.”
Brennan refused to say directly whether he believed Trump had been compromised by Russia, but he said the president behaved like a man aware of his own guilt.
“Donald Trump knows what he has done and he knows what might the Russians are aware of,” he said. “So I think his actions towards Mr. Putin may reflect that concern in term of what is in Donald Trump’s past that the Russians have and might use against him.”
The former CIA chief said Trump’s interactions with Putin might give his briefers reason to withhold some classified intelligence from the president out of fear that he would share it with his Russian counterpart.
“There very well might be, there might be — out of concern,” Brennan said.
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