Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said that President Trump dismissed intelligence on North Korea given to him by U.S. officials, telling them, “I don’t care, I believe Putin.”
Trump told officials in a meeting that he did not believe North Korean missiles could strike the U.S. mainland because Russian President Vladimir Putin told him those missiles did not exist, according to McCabe.
{mosads}”Intelligence officials in the briefing responded that that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses to which the president replied, ‘I don’t care. I believe Putin,'” McCabe told host Scott Pelley in an interview with “60 Minutes” released Sunday.
McCabe said it was “astounding” that Trump would lean on Putin’s information about an issue U.S. intelligence officials were briefing him on.
“To spend the time and effort and energy that we all do in the intelligence community to produce products that will help decisionmakers and the ultimate decisionmaker, the president of the United States, make policy decisions, and to be confronted with an absolute disbelief in those efforts and a unwillingness to learn the true state of affairs that he has to deal with every day was just shocking,” he said.
Excerpts from McCabe’s interview with Palley shared earlier this week drew criticism from Trump.
McCabe was fired by the FBI in March after an investigation found he made an unauthorized leak to the media and “lacked candor” on multiple occasions, including under oath.
McCabe’s appearance on CBS is part of his promotion of his new book, “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump.”