President Donald Trump's continued assault on insight into alleged administration ties to Russia show "there's obviously something to this" and threatens to make "us vulnerable to our enemies," endangering the U.S., former President Barack Obama's defense secretary said Sunday.
"Every time these things happen, every time he tweets, every time these issues come up that indicate that there's obviously something to this Russian issue and the administration is not cooperating — when that happens, when he accuses a past president of wiretapping without any evidence of that being the case, it makes us vulnerable," Panetta told CBS's "Face The Nation" host John Dickerson.
"It weakens the United States and it makes us vulnerable to our enemies. That is the danger."
President Trump's unsubstantiated claims the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the election is an attempt to "obfuscate" the truth of alleged Russian ties, added Panetta, who was also former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff.
"What I see here is this president is making the same mistake past presidents made when they faced scandals: That he is trying to divert attention," Panetta told Dickerson. "They are trying to obfuscate and trying to cover up.
"They are trying to somehow raise other issues and in the end, it is going to be the truth that will determine what is involved here, and not tweets, but the truth."
Panetta concluded the White House's "lack of discipline" amid allegations of Russia's meddling and the questions of Trump administration's involvement "is sending a terrible message out there" to the world.
"When the president goes off and does what he did within the last few days — of just going ahead and tweeting without checking on things — there is something wrong," Panetta told Dickerson. "There is something wrong in terms of the discipline within the White House and how you operate. . . . I think the White House is paying a price for that failure."
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