Donald Trump brushes off the concerns of 50 national security experts
Donald Trump doubled down on his dismissal of the concerns raised by dozens of former GOP national security officials during a Fox Business appearance on Tuesday. The Republican nominee said their letter, which suggests a Trump presidency would "put at risk our country's national security and well-being," was little more than a publicity stunt by the 50 national security experts who signed it. "They don't feel relevant... and they form a group and they go out and try to get some publicity for themselves and they hope that somebody else other than Trump wins because that way they can get a job," Trump said of the letter published Monday in The New York Times.
Then Trump said he wouldn't hire "any of these people" even if they asked. "I wasn't using any of them and they would have loved to have been involved with the campaign," Trump said. "Look at the terrible job they've done. I hadn't planned on using any of these people."
The letter, signed by high-profile critics including former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, former Homeland Security Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, and former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, suggested Trump didn't have the "character, values, and experience to be president."
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