Former CIA Director John Brennan has said that “things are reaching a boiling point” with the Trump White House.
“What happens in the days, weeks and months ahead is going to determine just how much damage will be done to this country,” said Brennan, appearing on NBC's “The Today Show,” on Thursday.
Brennan said he sees “all the warning signs of looming disaster” within President Donald Trump’s administration.
He made the remarks while responding to a question about an anonymous "senior official" in the White House who in an op-ed in The New York Times on Wednesday described efforts among White House staff to thwart parts of Trump’s agenda.
Brennan called the official's op-ed “courageous.”
NBC’s @JohnBrennan hails "courageous" @nytimes op/ed author attacking "unfit" @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/e1LCKgHSFC #TTT pic.twitter.com/DfGXeN4A4c
— Kyle Drennen (@kjdrennen) September 6, 2018
“It’s risky. It is so unusual as to raise questions — it’s so abnormal, these times, that people are doing abnormal things,” he said. “People have criticized me for speaking out as a former director. But I see all the warning signs of looming disaster, as does this person.”
Trump last month revoked Brennan’s security clearance and removed the ability for the former CIA director to access sensitive government information, citing the Russia investigation as the reason behind the decision.
The White House statement slammed Brennan, citing “lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary” and his engagement in “highly partisan positions.”
Since then, Brennan and Trump have been engaged in back-and-forth attacks.
Many senior members of the Trump administration are so alarmed by his "erratic" and "amoral" behavior that they are actively working to undermine him and protect the country from his worst impulses, according to the unidentified author.
"President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader," the Trump administration official wrote.
"The root of the problem is the president's amorality," he added.
The Times described the author as "a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.”