Retired Gen. Michael Hayden Wednesday morning stopped short of endorsing Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency, but said he's not sure if Donald Trump can turn around the things he's done in his campaign so far to make him feel comfortable supporting him.
"I don't know how you undo so many of the things that have already taken place," Hayden, a former National Security Agency and CIA director, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, after show co-host Willie Geist asked him if he's more likely to vote for Clinton, based on what he's seen in the last few days.
"If he can come up with it, I'll keep an open mind," Hayden continued. "I don't know what that is."
But at the same time, he told Geist that he is not yet prepared to say he's more likely to vote for Clinton, but he's not sure what Trump can do "to get me off this position that I just don't think that's going to work. I'm certainly not prepared to say that I would definitely vote for Secretary Clinton."
He admitted that it's possible that his position means he may not vote for either candidate.
"I've got a free franchise," said Hayden. "I can exercise it how I choose. Let me be very clear. In my narrow lane of national security, it's clear to me who the better choice is, but frankly, there are things to the right and to the left of my narrow lane that make me pause before I would make the kind of decision you're suggesting I should make now."
Hayden told co-host Joe Scarborough that he is most concerned about "how erratic" Trump is."
"I can argue about this position or that position," he said, in response to a question about what concerns him most.
"I do that with the current president. But he [Trump] is inconsistent. When you're the head of a global superpower, inconsistencies, unpredictability, those are dangerous things. They frighten your friends and they tempt your enemies. And so I would be very, very concerned."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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