Ex-CIA officer calls Donald Trump's national security team a 'clown show'

Philip Mudd, ex-CIA analyst, dissects Michael Flynn

(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

published 7 December 2016

Retired Gen. Michael Flynn's penchant for conspiracy theories has prompted growing calls for Donald Trump to drop him as national security adviser, and former CIA official Philip Mudd joined the chorus on CNN's Situation Room on Tuesday. "We have a history of remarkable servants in the Oval Office and in the Situation Room under Republican presidents," he told Wolf Blitzer, name-checking Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice. "We transition now to a national security adviser in a political realm who argues that [an] opponent on the stump should be locked up in prison and who argues that a billion-plus Muslims should be grouped together."

"You want to tell me that we're going to transition in the Situation Room to reality and I'm watching a clown show — I've had it with this, Wolf," he said. "I want to see a transition from a campaign to a reality and I don't see it yet."

Mudd also criticized Flynn's son and chief of staff, Michael G. Flynn, for his conspiracy-tweeting, but the president-elect has already dumped the younger Flynn from his transition team.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.