#28. Judge for yourself. Therein lies the problem.
There is an inherent responsibility one has when they occupy a bully pulpit, let alone the bully pulpit reserved for a Presidential nominee of a major political party in the United States.
Messages disseminated from this specific pulpit are amplified far and wide, and therefore, impact a lot of people. It’s important to recognize that, especially in the tense climate that hangs over our country, there are a lot of unhinged people out there. And anything can set them off.
Every day seems to find Donald Trump trying to pull his foot out of his mouth and his campaign and surrogates trying to bail water out of the Trumptanic.
But his latest gaffe, which could be interpreted as Trump tacitly suggesting (I’m erring on the side of giving a benefit of doubt) to a strategy of taking out, or assassinating, his political rival, has lowered the bar even further. Just when I thought….
Both sides of the aisle, no, make that the Democrats, Republicans and Trump supporters are all trying to attack/do damage control based on his speech today. And while I personally believe Trump crossed the line, the problem is that he should have spoken no where near that line. There can be nothing left open to interpretation at this point. What he says must be deliberate. And this was far from it.
P.S.
I used to tell my seniors at the CIA, you get to a certain point in this business you’re not just responsible for what you say, you’re responsible for what people hear…
Michael Hayden is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
