Page 29 - Intelligence Official News Today

James clapper, james comey, sally yates. the one thing they have in common, of course, is public criticism of this president. this appears to be a political decision, not an intelligence decision. and perhaps backing that up is our reporting that the nations senior most intelligence official, dan coats, was not consulted on this decision by the president. the other thing i would note, brooke, when you look at the officials in that list, together they have decades -- im talking about if you add i...

>> don, just one quick point. i think because trump -- or sarah huckabee sanders named these six former intelligence officials, there is a tendency to focus on them. but rick reminded me of this point while he was talking, which is, how about the current cia director who was the secretary of state mike pompeo said yes, the russians actively meddled in the election? how about the fbi director chris wray who was donald trumps pick? how about any -- literally any intelligence official currently in ...

Office. he will notice hell have an asterisk by the end of his name at the end of this thing, if he doesnt already with most people, and hes terrified of it. he also fears the legal liability and the collapse of all these people around him, and he fears most of all that were going to get to the fact that the russians are a significant part of his business and have been for a very long time, and hes going to have some explaining to do, and i dont think hes very comfortable with that fact. >> don,...

President has spoken in political and nonflattering terms about intelligence or members of the intelligence community at least 262 times on twitter since launching his presidential run. and we found those only after looking for a couple of hours this afternoon. but, again, politicizing intelligence, thats one thing. its bad, except that its when its members of his campaign and later his administration, then it seems for the president its okay. for instance, here is former defense intelligence ag...

American citizen, i find that very bothersome, very worrisome. >> james clampper, thanks for joining me. >> thanks. lets continue to discuss this with cnn politics reporter and editor at large chris lizza and cnn political analyst jackie kazinich. you didnt get the member me for the floral dress. >> i had a -- >> i would call you a skunk at the garden party. >> never on that e-mail list. >> in all seriousness, what did you make of what you heard from james clapper? >> the most important thing ...

People public servants, theyre citizens. remember that. they have the right to free speech, like everybody else. >> its also interesting, jackie kucinich, that a lot of times a current director of national intelligence, a current cia director, current national security adviser, will want to bring in predecessors to get a sense of, for example, how a foreign intelligence operative was working in terms of some background information. if you remove security clearances from a james clapper, for exam...

Diplomacy to shore up our relations with our historical native allies. >> what about departures? based on your reporting, gabe, do you think well see departures from the white house soon? >> i think probably john kelly is at the top of the list of people who are speculated to be leaving fire loor a long time n. everything ive heard from inside the white house is he is going to be leaving sometime this summer. hes coming up on the one-year mark as his time as special counsel in august. in the n...

Look bad. he should come out as congressman gowdy suggested, and say, this is totally unacceptable and standing there on an international stage, he should have said to president putin, we know what you did, its wrong, were going to hold you accountable, and were going to make darn sure its not going to happen again. thats what the president should have done. i think republicans are just as frustrated as democrats that he once again did not do that. >> adam smith of washington, thank you so much....

Secretary of state pompeo was indicating that its always better to talk but that not everyone in the administration seemed to know what the president was saying, his intelligence director for example, had no idea that there was even a planned follow-up meeting at the time that the president was considering for the fall. do you think he should be communicating more with folks like you, even within his own staff? >> well you know, im here at the summit where dni director can coats was interviewed ...

Invitation, the nations most senior intelligence official. >> we have some breaking news, the white house has announced on twitter that vladimir putin is coming to the white house in the fall. >> say that again? [ laughter ] thats going to be special. >> reporter: director of national intelligence dan coats says even he still doesnt know what putin and trump discussed in their two-hour, one-on-one meeting in helsinki. >> i think we will learn more. but that is the presidents prerogative. >> repo...