Leon Panetta

And the fact is, that what the Russians did constitutes a cyberattack on this country. It's an attack by an adversary on our country.

I wonder if this President realizes how much damage he's doing to the office of the presidency. When you're president of the United States, the most important thing you have as president of the United States is the trust of the American…

You cannot continue to have several different versions of what took place here. There's one version. There's one truth about what was really involved here.

I think I can tell you, Anderson, that no president I ever worked for would have asked that question over an FBI director, because of the appearance of a conflict by just asking that question.

This president, any president cannot run away from the truth. Ultimately the truth is going to show itself.

It creates obviously a great deal of confusion in the country, and I would suspect it creates a great deal of confusion around the world.

Well, it's obviously very confused. And it just shows a lot of disorganization within the White House and the relationship between the president and his subordinates, because if you're going to take a major step like firing the FBI…

That would represent the kind of red line that would require action on our part.

I think it needs to be a very tough message. We are the ones who have shown that we're willing to back up our word with actions, so with that targeted attack.

I think the less he takes time to attack President Obama, I think the better off he will be.

I have never seen... this many flashpoints confronting our country since probably World War II.

I just think it's hurting his ability to deal with all of the other issues he's got to confront as president.

I really think everybody needs to take a deep breath and allow this investigation to proceed.

It's irresponsible of the president to do that.

we will respond in kind.

That's cause for concern, because Bob Harward is a good man. Worked for Jim Mattis. I know him. I think he's very capable at what he does. And the fact that for whatever reason he decided not to take that role raises concerns about whether…

Well, that's what I worry about. My understanding is that there is yet to be a meeting of the National Security Council. We're four weeks into this new administration. We haven't even had a deputy's meeting of the National Security Council.

At some point, he's got to get back to that serious responsibility of governing the country.

I think Mike Flynn ought to be able to continue to do his work.

If you've got an FBI investigation going on into possible links between the Trump administration or Trump individuals and the Russians, that you would assume that all phone conversations between those within the administration and the…

What he's been doing these last few weeks, I think in many ways, weakens this country rather than strengthens it.

This president has to acknowledge the role that they've played and he's got to make very clear to them that that kind of behavior will not be tolerated.

I think it's very troubling when a country like Russia, an adversary in the world to the United States, you know, we're engaged with Russia in what I would call probably a new chapter of the Cold War. And this indicates how bad the…

I think when somebody, you know, like Donald Trump tweets as he does, and reflects his kind of instant emotions and puts it out to the world, that in many ways the world looks at that and are -- you know, they're asking themselves, what…

And you know my view, talking with the President was--if I brought it to the point where we had evidence that they are developing an atomic weapon, I think the President is serious that he is not going to allow that to happen.