Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Thursday that — while "I probably wouldn't have gone there" — he understood former DNI Director James Clapper's concerns about President Donald Trump after his Tuesday rally in Phoenix.
"I probably wouldn't have gone there, certainly with the language that Jim used," Hayden, who also headed the NSA, told Anderson Cooper on CNN. "I understand the concerns that Jim raised there."
Hayden was among 50 top Republican national security experts signing a letter last year saying they opposed Trump's candidacy.
Clapper challenged Trump's fitness for office after his Phoenix speech, telling CNN early Wednesday that "I really question his ability to be... in this office."
Hayden told Cooper that Trump's performance so far "really hasn't done much to make me feel better about the decision-making process, the experience, the appreciation for both history and consequences, that you'd expect a president to have."
He added that Trump's behavior could lead other nations to wonder about the political stability of the United States.
"'What are your thoughts on the stability of the current administration?'" Hayden suggested as a possible question under consideration by a foreign entity. "'Who in the American government speaks authoritatively for the American government?
"What are the possibilities of political violence in the United States?'"
"Those aren't predictions," he cautioned. "What I'm simply saying is... those are the kinds of questions that other intelligence services are now looking at us to determine answers."
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