Retired four-star general Barry McCaffrey has blasted President Trump, calling him “a serious threat to US national security.”
Retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey has blasted President Trump, calling him "a serious threat to US national security."
"Reluctantly I have concluded that President Trump is a serious threat to US national security. He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks. It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin," McCaffrey tweeted on Friday.
Later that day, McCaffrey called into MSNBC and explained his reasoning behind the tweet.
"I've been fairly critical of the president for a variety of reasons, but…[the] turning point in my mind was his reluctance to personally stand with the Brits over what has been a documented series of essentially Russian intelligence murders in London, and the latest one being really a signature attempt at assassination of the former Russian intelligence officer and his daughter using a chemical agent that was clearly only available to former Soviet operatives," McCaffrey said.
He was referring to the recent nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K.
Trump's relative silence immediately following the incident was noted by the New York Times which stated in a report that he "left it instead to aides to express public solidarity with Prime Minister Theresa May."
However, the U.S. president eventually weighed in, saying, "It sounds to me like it would be Russia, based on all the evidence they have."
Trump has previously been criticized for his questionable lack of condemnation over other Russia-related activities including its interference in the U.S. election and President Putin's talk of its nuclear weapons arsenal.