Former Intelligence Officials Slam Trump For His ‘Unprecedented’ Blabbering About A Classified Briefing

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The Washington Post reveals how former intelligence officers don’t seem to be buying Donald Trump’s assertion that national security briefers told him — through body language — that they were upset with President Obama. High ranking intelligence officials said this type of admission by the briefers would be a violation of training.

After becoming the Republican nominee, Trump received a classified briefing geared towards aiding a transition to the Oval Office. Trump must have thought it was alright to gab about his impressions of these meetings. In response to a softball question from Matt Lauer, Trump said the only thing he gleaned from the briefing session was that intelligent officers were not happy with Obama. His evidence? Body language:

“What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts, and our – truly, when they call it intelligence, it’s there for a reason – what our experts said to do. In almost every instance, and I could tell – I’m pretty good with the body language – I could tell they were not happy.”

Trump, who is no stranger to the art of mannerisms, is basing his entire claim on how someone acted during the briefing. Some intelligent officers are raising their eyebrows to this claim. Paul Pillar, a former high-ranking CIA analyst, told the Washington Post that it would be highly unlikely that the person briefing Trump would be this inept at their job:

“Those selected for this task would have been the most professional of an elite corps of intelligence officers. One of the last things they would do is express either verbally or through body language preferences.”

Briefings from CIA officials are intended to be a classified situation, with candidates keeping details on the down low. Michael Hayden, former CIA director who served under the George W. Bush, told Politico he had never seen a situation like this:

“I’ve never seen anything like that. That’s just awful … I mean a candidate used the intelligence professionals who were briefing him in an absolutely nonpolitical setting, he imputed to him some views that were politically useful to them in the moment.”

Pillar and Hayden’s sentiments seemed to be shared by others, as they couldn’t believe Trump even brought the subject up. Some said Trump doesn’t understand the first thing about how intelligence works. But it’s safe to assume most should take what Trump says with a grain of salt.

(Via The Washington Post & Politico)

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