title:  Intelligence Officials SKEWER Trump For Politicizing Classified Briefings
text: The latest 2016 developments are completely unprecedented in our nation s history but Donald Trump doesn t care.Despite the fact that classified intelligence briefings are supposed to be kept confidential and neutral during elections, the Republican nominee broke established protocol on Wednesday night and opened his big mouth to make unfounded claims about those meetings.During the Commander-in-Chief Forum on NBC, Trump demonstrated in a single breath that he is totally unfit to be president when he told Matt Lauer that he could tell by the  body language  of those briefing him that don t like President Obama. I was very, very surprised. In almost every instance, and I could tell, I have pretty good with the body language [sic], I could tell, they were not happy. Our leaders did not follow what they were recommending. Not only is Trump trying to destroy the neutrality of the intelligence community, he is trying to use them for his own political gain.And intelligence officials both past and present were quick to slam him for it.Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar told the Washington Post that intelligence officers do not express political preferences during these briefings and they certainly do not use body language. Those selected for this task would have been the most professional of an elite corps of intelligence officers. One of the last things they would do is express either verbally or through body language preferences. Former CIA officer David Priess, who is experienced at delivering briefings was completely disgusting by Trump s claim. We ve had other presidential candidates mention that they got a briefing and talk in platitudes about it. We ve never had somebody talk about what happened in a session. Trump not only blabbed, he told a straight-up lie in order to claim that there is discord between the Obama Administration and the intelligence community, which could create a mistrust that could have serious consequences. In short, this attempt by Trump to score political points is dangerous.Former CIA Director Michael Morell agrees. This is the first time that I can remember a candidate for president doing a readout from an intelligence briefing, and it s the first time a candidate has politicized their intelligence briefing,  he told NBC.  Both of those are highly inappropriate and crossed a long standing red line respected by both parties. To me this is just the most recent example that underscores that this guy is unfit to be commander in chief. Donald Trump is clearly sowing discord between the intelligence community and the current administration at a time when we need both to work together to protect the American people. But that will only get harder because of Trump s unwillingness to keep his mouth shut by making claims he can t prove.Intelligence officials are trained to be neutral and to keep their personal political beliefs out of their assessments. Ultimately, the president has the final say on what action to take on certain intelligence whether intelligence agents agree or not.At this point, Trump has failed to build trust with the intelligence community and that could be a major problem for this country as we seek to prevent future attacks by ISIS. Donald trump is not helping, he is hurting and that is not the kind of president America needs.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images