The former US Director of National Intelligence has given a damning appraisal of Donald Trump’s bizarre rally last night in Arizona and questioned his fitness to be President.
James Clapper, who has served every Commander-in-Chief since JFK through to Barack Obama, described the 77-minute rambling speech as “scary and disturbing”.
Speaking to CNN, he said:
Trump’s rally prompted bewilderment after he opened with calls for unity and an assertion that “our movement is about love” before launching into a series of vitriolic tirades.
He blamed the media for the widespread condemnation of his response to violence at a Charlottesville, Virginia, protest organised by white supremacists.
Trump then shouted he had “openly called for healing, unity and love” in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and had simply been misrepresented in news coverage.
In an attempt to prove this he then pulled copies of his speeches from his pocket and spent 16 minutes reading them, finishing by insisting “the words were perfect”.
But he skipped the part where he blamed “many sides” for the violence in Charlottesville which is the very utterance that caused the backlash in the first place.
Returning to his attack on the media he told the roaring crowd: “You know where my heart is. I’m only doing this to show you how damned dishonest these people are.”