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Former CIA Director John Brennan: ‘I Am More Worried Today Than I Ever Have Been Before’

In an appearance on MSNBC, former CIA director John Brennan praised a New York Times [1] op-ed written by Dan Coats, Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence, who criticized a number of Trump’s actions without mentioning him by name and also expressed grave concern for the state of the U.S.

During the interview, Brennan said he has “deep respect” for Coats, characterizing him as “a man of great integrity as well as honesty,” Maven Roundtable [2] reports.

“He clearly sees the threat we face, collectively, to our democratic experiment,” Brennan said. “And I must say…after listening to the public statements of Donald Trump and William Barr, especially over the last several days, I am more worried today than I ever have been before in the health and stability of our government and our country.”

Brennan described Trump as self-serving and corrupt and Barr as dogmatically far-right. Because well, that’s what they are.

“Clearly, Donald Trump, as we all know, is an unethical, unprincipled, corrupt individual who will do anything to advance his own interests,” Brennan said. “William Barr is a far-right ideologue, who is exploiting the powers of the attorney general to advance his interests, his agenda, and using Donald Trump as a way to protect what he’s doing,” Brennan said.

Brennan also had sharp words for Republicans, who have done little to stop Trump in his tracks.

“When I look at then the Republicans in the Senate — Senators [Mitch] McConnell and [Ron] Johnson and [Lindsey] Graham and others — they just are allowing this trampling of democratic institutions,” he told MSNBC.

He noted that situations like this are not uncommon overseas (unfortunately) when totalitarian leadership takes over.

“I’ve seen this happen in countries overseas when an authoritarian leader is able to exploit the environment,” Brennan said. “And we are not on the cusp of a very, very difficult period when we approach this election. And I just get more and more worried each day.”

Brennan also recently spoke out in late August, in his own op-ed for The Washington Post, [3] where he couldn’t help but make comparisons between the Obama and Trump administrations.

“In 2016, I was fortunate to work for a president and with a director of national intelligence who had no personal or partisan agendas that affected the ability of the intelligence community to fulfill its statutory obligations to keep Congress “fully and currently informed” on national security matters, including Russian interference in our elections,” he wrote.

But in the age of Trump, that situation has changed.

“In 2020, however, the situation is far different, as President Trump has shown utter contempt for the independence, objectivity, and apolitical integrity of the intelligence community. And since he has made no secret of his intention to do whatever necessary to stay in office beyond January 2021, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he will attempt to suffocate the flow of any intelligence to Congress that could upend his ruthless ambition.”

Brennan knows Trump in a way that most of us don’t, and the above statements should creep you out. If they don’t, I don’t know what to tell you.

Here’s Brennan’s interview below.