Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated, “Watergate pales really in my view compared to what we’re confronting now.” Clapper continued, “I am very concerned about the assault on our institutions coming from both an external source — read Russia — and an internal source — the president himself.”
Clapper went on to rip President Trump by name, stating that he called Trump after Trump tweeted negatively about the intelligence community shortly before his inauguration. Clapper explained:
I tried, naively it turned out, to appeal to his “higher instincts” — by pointing out that the intelligence community he was about to inherit is a national treasure and that the people in it were committed to supporting him and making him successful. Ever transactional, he simply asked me to publicly refute the infamous “dossier,” which I could not and would not do.
Ex-DNI Clapper: Watergate pales compared to what we’re confronting now pic.twitter.com/pGc6N1dcK3
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 7, 2017
Clapper went on to slam Trump for speaking about “fake news” at the CIA, and blasted Trump for firing former FBI director James Comey. “Apart from the egregious, inexcusable manner in which it was conducted, this episode reflected complete disregard for the independence and autonomy of the FBI, our premier law enforcement organization. … So, as I said, I worry about these assaults on our institutions.”
This is all insanely over-the-top.
While it’s a revelation that Trump asked Clapper to dismiss an intelligence “dossier” on Trump — a dossier that had a good deal of material in it that was demonstrably false — none of the rest of this has been proven in any serious way. At the root of Watergate was an actual break-in at the Democratic National Committee, covered up by the president of the United States and conducted by his subordinates. We still have no evidence of actual collusion between Trump or his associates and the Russians regarding the 2016 campaign. We know that the Russians attempted to interfere with the election, and that President Trump touted Wikileaks — as did a huge portion of the media. That is not a crime.
As to the supposed cover-up, Trump hasn’t been accused of attempting to shut down the Trump-Russia investigation by anyone in the know, including Comey. His queries could easily be just an ignorant expression of annoyance at the continuation of an investigation Trump feels will find nothing. And Trump had every right to fire Comey — he should have fired him before actually taking office.
Clapper can’t be trusted on these issues. He was Obama’s appointee; he’s lied before Congress about the extent of intelligence monitoring of American citizens. He has a political ax to grind.
Perhaps the evidence will eventually justify Clapper’s suspicions. But at this point, Clapper’s commentary is mere political hackery masquerading as knowledgeable insight.