Former CIA director says intelligence community will recover under Biden
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday that he believes that the intelligence community will recover under President-elect Biden, after it faced repeated attacks from President Trump over the past four years. If Mr. Trump had won the 2020 election, Hayden said, intelligence "would be dead."
"Intelligence is truth. We want to know truth," Hayden told Elaine Quijano, anchor of CBSN's "Red & Blue." "If there was another Trump administration, intelligence would be dead. Intelligence would be dead. Now we're gonna be all right. It's gonna take awhile, but we're gonna be all right."
Hayden, a retired general, served as director of the CIA under the Bush and Obama administrations. Before that, he was the director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. He was one of dozens of former national security officials who endorsed Mr. Biden during the 2020 presidential election, calling Mr. Trump "dangerously unfit to serve another term."
Mr. Trump has had a combative relationship with the intelligence community for much of his presidency, accusing government employees of secretly working to thwart his agenda and questioning their analyses, particularly when they involve Russia.
"With President Biden now, maybe there's a chance to do the right thing for intelligence. You know now it'll be hard. And I think, frankly, it'll take a few years. But I think we can do it," Hayden said.
Mr. Biden has already announced several top positions on his national security team, including secretary of state, homeland security secretary, director of national intelligence, ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser. But he has yet to name a nominee to replace Gina Haspel as CIA director. Haspel has been in the role since 2018 and is the first woman to lead the agency.
Hayden said his picks for CIA director are Michael Morell and David Cohen. Morell was deputy director of the agency from 2010 to 2013 and served twice as the acting director. He is also a national security contributor for CBS News. Cohen was deputy director from 2015 to 2017.
"Either one would be OK," Hayden said, adding that he expects Mr. Biden will make an announcement on the nominee next week.