During CNN’s coverage of President Trump’s speech in Phoenix, CNN National Security Analyst James Clapper, who served as the Director of National Intelligence under President Obama, questioned President Trump’s fitness for office and suggested the president might be looking for a way out and could be a threat to national security.
Clapper said of the speech, “I don’t know when I’ve listened and watched something like this from a president that I found more disturbing. Having some understanding of the levers of power that are available to a president if he chooses to exercise them, I found this downright scary and disturbing.”
Anchor Don Lemon asked Clapper, “Are you questioning his fitness?
Clapper responded, “Yes, I do. I really question his ability to — his fitness to be in this office, and I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation for it. Maybe he is looking for a way out. I do wonder, as well, about the people that attracted to this rally as others. You know, what are they thinking? Or why am I so far out — off base? Because I don’t understand the adulation. And of course, that’s why I think he gravitated to having this rally, as-ill timed as it is.”
He later stated that there is a “complete intellectual, moral, and ethical void that the president of the United States exhibits,” and wondered, “how much longer does the country have to, to borrow a phrase, endure this nightmare.”
Lemon later asked Clapper, “Is he a threat to national security, the president?”
Clapper responded, “Well, he certainly could be. Again, having some understanding of the levers that a president can exercise, I worry about, frankly, you know, the access to nuclear codes. If he — in a fit of pique, he decides to do something about Kim Jong-un, there’s actually very little to stop him. The whole system’s built to ensure a rapid response, if necessary. So, there are little in the way of controls over, you know, exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty damn scary.”
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