Leon Panetta

The purpose of those briefings is to build support with the Senate and with the Congress.

I think, frankly, they've increased the chances of war and the chances that Iran will now respond with a -- what it calls a crushing response.

Whether or not that takes place in this White House is difficult to know because it's pretty clear that the consequences of killing somebody like General Soleimani would clearly have repercussions in Iran and would clearly lead to some…

I don't think there's any question the chances for war are more serious now than they have been in the last 40 years, that we could ultimately escalate what's happening now into a full-scale war with Iran.

Russia is our enemy. Their intent is to undermine the United States.

I think he's been badly damaged by what took place. And I would be very surprised if his days are not limited.

I think this has been a probably the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in recent history.

The purpose of that whistleblower law is to be able to protect someone who sees something illegal going on or some kind of fraud taking place and reports that and is protected from any retaliation as a result of that.

If we want that law to have any strength, if we want to encourage others to abide by the whistle-blower law, we are going to damn well have to protect this individual.

It raises concerns about whether Secretary Pompeo has been forthright about what was involved here.

Your life suddenly becomes in jeopardy.

I think it's very problematic, particularly for Secretary Pompeo who at least up to this point has not acknowledged that he was on the call.

That transcript is a smoking gun that points to a President having used his office and his responsibilities as commander in chief in dealing with military aid, having used that as leverage to try to get the president of the Ukraine to…

I don't think there's any question that both the President and Rudy Giuliani thought that it was important that the Ukraine conduct this investigation in order to give them something to go after on Joe Biden.

This involves an allegation of an offense committed by the President of the United States. This is a moment in time, very frankly, both Democrats and Republicans have to look at their responsibility.

I have never seen another president do what this President has done.

I don't think it is in keeping with what our country is all about. We're the strongest military power on the face of the earth. And we have never had to display that power to the world in order to prove it. We know who we are. We know our…

This president almost politicizes every event that he's a part of, every speech that he gives. Ultimately, has a political tinge to it. So I can't imagine he's going to speak for 20 minutes and not include politics in that speech, which I…

No, I don't. I think the military would prefer to have the 4th of July be a day for the American people to enjoy themselves and their families and enjoy the fireworks and enjoy the music. We've never turned the 4th of July into a military…

I think it shows more evidence of how dysfunctional this White House is.

There's no moral standard here that the president and obviously those around him abide by.

We have a president that instead of wanting to be truthful to the American people about what exactly is going on, cannot be trusted with regards to the truth.

It's all about protecting him. It's all about saying whatever he has to say that will somehow protect him, particularly with his base of support.

the tone of the White House is set from the top by the president.

I don't think there's anything certainly in recent history that compares to this White House and how it fails to run.