James Clapper/Reuters
The former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said Tuesday night on CNN that he now questions President Trump’s fitness for the executive office and worries about his access to the nuclear-launch codes, in an unprecedented critique of a commander in chief by a top intel official. Following a rally in Phoenix that Clapper called “downright scary and disturbing,” he said, “I really question his ability to be—his fitness to be—in this office, and I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation for it.” Referring to Trump’s standoff with the North Korean regime, Clapper said he worried that if “in a fit of pique he decides to do something about Kim Jong Un, there’s actually very little to stop him,” adding “the whole system is built to ensure rapid response if necessary. So there’s very little in the way of controls over exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty damn scary.” Clapper went on to condemn Trump’s “behavior and divisiveness and complete intellectual, moral, and ethical void,” adding, “How much longer does the country have to, to borrow a phrase, endure this nightmare?”