Former director of US National Intelligence James Clapper has hit back at President Donald Trump for criticizing a former military commander, describing Trump’s disparaging remarks as a blow to the “intelligence community”.
Clapper on Monday said Trump’s criticism of retired Navy admiral William McRaven, who led the US operation that killed Osama bin Laden, was “a slam at the intelligence community”.
In an interview that aired on Sunday on Fox News Channel, Trump had dismissed McRaven, a vocal Trump critic, as a backer and fan of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
He then criticized the intelligence community for taking a long time – almost ten years — after occupying Afghanistan to find bin Laden, who was reportedly killed by Navy SEALs in a 2011 operation in Pakistan.
McRaven “is a Hilary Clinton backer and an Obama-backer, and frankly … wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that? Wouldn’t it…