Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a new interview that he would advise against working for the Trump administration, Yahoo News reported.
Hayden said in a Yahoo podcast that he’s had difficulty watching top officials try to defend President Trump.
“The longer they were in the administration, the more their personal credentials were being threatened,” Hayden said. “At what point do you stop being a guard rail and become an enabler and a legitimizer?”
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Although Hayden advised former colleagues against serving under Trump, he said younger people who want to join the government should remember their “moral thresholds” and “take notes,” something that former FBI Director James Comey did to counter claims made by Trump.
“You may want to keep a draft letter in your desk drawer,” Hayden said, referring to a letter of resignation.
Hayden’s new book, “The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies,” serves as a critique of Trump, whom Hayden has called a “useful idiot.”
The former CIA director noted that there have been presidents that lie in the past, but that Trump stands out.
“The difference here is, this seems to be a president who bases a fair number of decisions on something other than a view of objective reality,” Hayden said.