Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he worries about the stability of the U.S. and the "fragility" of the country's institutions,
CNN reported.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday, Clapper said the U.S. is exhibiting some of the characteristics of instability that the intelligence community applies to other countries, due in part to racial tensions, the murders of police officers and mass shootings, CNN reports.
"I do worry about the fragility of those institutions," CNN quoted Clapper. "Legal institutions, the rule of law, protection of citizens' liberty, privacy" are "somewhat under assault in this country, and that's not being helped by a lot of the rhetoric that we're hearing."
Clapper told the assembly his opinions were personal and not in any official capacity as intelligence chief, CNN reports.