Obama’s CIA head John Brennan calls Trump ‘treasonous’ after Putin summit, Chuck Hagel says there was no strategy
Former CIA Director John Brennan tweeted about President Trump’s news conference, saying it “was nothing short of treasonous.”
“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous,” Brennan wrote on Twitter.
#Traitor then became a trending hashtag on Twitter, with thousands of users expressing outrage over Trump’s comments and accusing Trump of treason.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Trump “failed America today,” but stopped short of calling the President’s behavior “treasonous.”
“I would not have said it the way John (Brennan) said it. John can say it the way he wants to say it. But as to impeachment, we’ll see how this plays out. That’s a congressional responsibility and the Congress must do what they think is in the best interest of this country,” Hagel told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Hagel said that Trump didn’t appear to have a strategy.
“This was not a golf outing. This was not a real estate transactional kind of arrangement. … Engagement must be connected to a strategic interest, a strategic purpose. I don’t know what that strategic purpose was. I am now convinced we didn’t have one,” Hagel said, later remarking that the meeting with Putin marked “a sad day for America” and “a sad day for the world.”
Andrew Wright, former assistant White House counsel to President Obama and associate professor at Savannah Law School, told Business Insider on Monday that he doesn’t believe the US and Russia are at war, or that Trump’s conduct at the summit alone amounts to treason.
“It’s quite clear he’s selling out important American national security interests by not standing up to Russian aggression,” Wright said. “That’s why you see some people using the term traitor. It’s not a term I prefer to use…it’s the kind of thing I’d like to see after more investigative processes and legal findings.”
Jens David Ohlin, vice dean and professor of constitutional law at Cornell Law School, told Business Insider that even without a formal declaration, there is a case to be made that Russia and the US are indeed at war.
“One argument would be that Russia has engaged in a covert cyber-intervention against US interests, including election meddling, that rises to the level of hostilities,” he wrote. “However, an even better argument would be that Russia and the United States are on the opposite sides of various armed confrontations in Syria,” he continued, referencing Russia’s backing of the Syrian regime in opposition to the US’ backing of anti-Assad rebel groups.
[…] Brennan, who led the CIA during most of President Obama’s second term, has emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest critics, denouncing his performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month as “treasonous.” […]