The state of the Republican Party is so heinous that the former director of the CIA, Michael Hayden, perceives them as one of the most “nihilistic, dangerous, and contemptible” political forces in play today.
Hayden is a retired four-star general who served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) under former President George W. Bush. His position on today’s GOP was offered on Twitter when he retweeted a post from Edward Luce, the associate editor of the Financial Times.
“I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close,” Luce wrote.
“I agree. And I was the CIA director,” Hayden tweeted in response on Wednesday.
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The statement is a cutting one, given Hayden’s history. When he was director of the CIA, he oversaw conflicts with the Taliban and ISIS.
And particularly so, as it comes just after former President Donald Trump spent the last week slamming the nation’s intelligence institutions and Justice Department in response to the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort for sensitive and classified records that investigators believe were improperly retained.
Several Republicans in the House and Senate have echoed Trump’s criticisms of the FBI and DOJ of late and have done so despite a recent spate of violent attacks on law enforcement.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a memo internally on Monday noting the uptick. The threats have occurred mostly online and on social media platforms, but according to CBS, the threats assessed by the FBI have also featured calls for a civil war, an armed uprising, and the placement of a dirty bomb at the FBI office in Washington, D.C.
Threats made against lawmakers have increased, too. The U.S. Capitol Police reported last year that threats made against lawmakers have jumped up hugely. For instance, last year Capitol Police reported that more than 9,600 threats were made against legislators in Congress. In 2017, that number was just over 3,900 threats recorded.