New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte went on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” to criticize President Barack Obama for ignoring his own intelligence chief’s terror assessment, accusing him of living in an “alternative reality.”
While Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and White House press secretary Josh Earnest have in recent days been pushing a rather rosy picture of the fight against terrorism, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offered a completely different assessment by saying the threat of terrorism is expanding.
“[Clapper] has been very consistent. The other thing he said yesterday is 2014 was the most lethal year for global terrorism,” Ayotte noted. “So what we have is the administration either is totally disconnected from the intelligence community, but what I suspect more is they are trying to spin what is a very bad situation around the world, and really trying to posit an alternative reality.” (VIDEO: Former Obama Intel Chief: John Kerry Is ‘Out Of Touch With Reality’ )
“Let’s not forget that during the State of the Union, the president said the shadow of crisis has passed,” Ayotte said. “That’s very inconsistent with what we heard from Director of Intelligence Clapper in terms of what the state of affair is from the intelligence perspective, and what we know on the ground.”