Elections

Former NSA Director: ‘I Would Lose All Respect’ For Foreign Intel If They Didn’t Hack Clinton’s Server

Steve Guest Media Reporter
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Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden says, “I would lose all respect for scores of intelligence services around the world if they did not have all the access they wanted” to Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Tuesday on the “Hugh Hewitt Show,” Hayden said, “I just can’t imagine why or how that was permitted” for Clinton to operate a private email server. (RELATED: Revealed: State Dept. Created Classified Email Account For Hillary, But She Never Used It)

Hewitt asked Hayden if he thought the Russians and others “breached” Clinton’s private email server and Hayden said, “Let me just give you the straight from the heart answer. I would lose respect, I would lose all respect for scores of intelligence services around the world if they did not have all the access they wanted to that server. “(RELATED: Former Sec Def Robert Gates: ‘Odds Are Pretty High’ Russia, China, And Iran Accessed Hillary’s Server [VIDEO])

Following up, Hewitt asked if the foreign intelligence agencies had access to Clinton’s server in “real time” and Hayden said, “You know, even a server like that in the private sector, isn’t that easy to target. You have to work against it. But let me turn that on its head just a little bit, Hugh. If I were still at NSA and someone came to me and said, ‘We just discovered that the Russian Foreign Minister has a private server. Now it’s just unclassified email on it but we think we can get into it.’ Believe me, we’d have been after that in a heartbeat. I suspect a bunch of others have done the same.”

“Given what we now know has been classified” on Clinton Servers, Hewitt asked Hayden if he was “appalled.” (RELATED: Reports: Some Of Hillary Clinton’s Emails Are ‘Too Damaging’ To National Security To Release)

“I’m more disappointed than appalled,” Hayden claimed. “And here’s how I explain it publicly, and to myself, Hugh. Once you set it up this way, it’s like that old TV show, this is Breaking Bad. You don’t have to be stupid, immoral, illegal, or lazy for this to end up in a very unhappy place. Once you set the system up, for the secretary of state’s official emails, to end up on a private server, I just can’t imagine why or how that was permitted to take place.”

“If you had a deputy either at NSA or at CIA, deputy director of CIA or deputy director of NSA, who had a home brew server like this, would you of had them fired and disciplined,” Hewitt wondered.

“First of all, none of my deputies would have ever of done this,” Hayden said. “And let me just turn that on its head too. Let’s say I’m the sinner here, and I had two deputies, Bill Black at NSA and Steve Kappes over at CIA, they Hugh, would not have let me do this. They would have walked in and said, ‘Mike, I love you like a brother, this isn’t going to happen.’ And it’s really unfortunate that that didn’t happen at the State Department.”

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