ASPEN, Colo. (AP) – Two former top intelligence officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for not standing up to Russia for meddling in the presidential election, one of them wondering aloud whether the president’s real aim is to make “Russia great again.”
Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan didn’t hold back their anger about Trump’s past disparaging comments about the intelligence agencies and their assessment that Moscow deliberately interfered in the election and tried to sow discord in the United States.
Asked if he thinks Trump takes the threat from Russia seriously enough, Clapper said he wonders sometimes if the White House agenda is about “making Russia great again.” The comment played off Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”
In a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Clapper and Brennan said that Trump advisers should have been more wary of meeting with a Russian lawyer and others. In June, in the heat of the campaign, the president’s son, his campaign manager and his son-in-law met a group at Trump Tower in New York that included a Russian lawyer and Russian lobbyist. Emails about the meeting showed that Donald Trump Jr., attended on the premise of obtaining damaging material the Russian government had on Hillary Clinton
“It would have been a really good idea to have vetted whomever they were meeting with. I think the Russian objective here was to explore to see if there was interest in having such a discussion on offering up dirt on Hillary Clinton,” Clapper said. He said the meeting reminds him of standard Russian spy craft.