Sen. Kelly Ayotte on Friday slammed President Barack Obama for ignoring his own intelligence director's assessment of terrorist threats to U.S. security, saying the administration has built an "alternative reality" for itself,
the Daily Caller reported.
Ayotte noted that while Obama and Secretary of State
John Kerry have provided an upbeat picture of the country's national security situation, National Intelligence Director James Clapper offered a dramatically different assessment in testimony Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"When the final accounting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such data has been compiled," Clapper said,
Fox News reports.
Appearing on
Fox News' "America's Newsroom," Ayotte said that while Clapper has consistently warned of the growing threat, the rosy picture provided by Obama and Kerry did not make sense. She said the administration is either "totally disconnected from the intelligence community or "trying to spin what is a very bad position around the world" in an effort "to posit an alternative reality."
Ayotte said it is important to remember "that during the State of the Union, the president said 'the shadow of crisis has passed.' "
That assertion is "very inconsistent with what we heard from Director of Intelligence Clapper in terms of what the state of affair[s] is from the intelligence perspective," she said.
The New Hampshire Republican said that Iran continues to undermine U.S. interests in the Middle East, and is developing ICBM programs.
Regarding the administration, Ayotte said she wished "they would be half as angry at Iran as they've been at Israel."
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