Saunders: Former acting CIA head looks back at endorsement

In an interview this month with Politico’s Susan Glasser, Morell did not describe his Clinton endorsement as a mistake. Even knowing what he knows now, he said, he could not say with certainty that he would not do it again. But he did say, “I don’t think I fully thought through the implications.”

It was an interview that generated Beltway buzz. Morell, who served as CIA deputy director under President Barack Obama, proposed that people put themselves in Trump’s shoes — and recognize the reasons Trump has to suspect those charged with guarding American security.

First, Trump saw a former CIA director (Morell) and former director of the National Security Agency (Michael Hayden) criticizing him and his policies.

Then he became the GOP nominee and received his first intelligence briefing. Within 48 hours of that, there were leaks criticizing the disruptive behavior of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn with briefers.

Trump won in November and was supposed to get a daily briefing. “And he doesn’t,” Morell said. “And within a few days, there’s leaks about how he’s not taking the briefing. So he must have thought, ‘Who are these guys? Are these guys out to get me? Is this a political organization?”

In a follow-up interview, Morell told the Review-Journal that “the intelligence community is not political,” and noted that he did not endorse Clinton until three years after he left Langley.

Credibility at risk

OK, but what about the leaks?

Morell believes that Trump thinks the intelligence community was behind the leak. Morell does not because intelligence staffers have to take regular polygraphs during which they are asked if they leaked information to the media.

“Most leaks do not come out of the intelligence community for that reason,” he said.

Morell, now a CBS News contributor, says the intelligence community put so much emphasis on fighting terrorism that it was late to see the threat posed by Moscow in the 2016 election. He would not be surprised if special counsel Robert Mueller concludes the Trump campaign did not break the law in its dealings with Russia.

Morell talked with the Review-Journal because he was disappointed that stories missed his most important point in his interview with Glasser. His fear is divisions in this country, and the media’s place in the schism. “I think the biggest threat to the United States is us,” he said.

At his son’s urging, Morell read a book about former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. After the strongman’s election, he said, the Venezuelan news media “becomes the political opposition and thereby it loses all its credibility with the Venezuelan people.” He fears the same thing is happening in American journalism as well.

When he picks up newspapers, Morell said, “I see a lot of bias. I’m not surprised the president sees all that and (decides) that the media are out to get him.”

Morell concluded, “What’s interesting to me is that nobody in the media picked that up.”