James Clapper

if we lose sight of the truth in this country we are in serious trouble.

This administration is learning what past administrations had learned about the North Koreans. They are prickly sensitive, opaque and unpredictable.

We need to careful what we ask for. Because denuclearization in their mind could apply two ways.

I think just as an obligation to the American public, there should be an explanation.

I thought that characterization is reprehensible in and of itself. And again, this is part of I think the general assault on our institutions, notably law enforcement and perhaps lesser extent the intelligence community, which is not good…

The reason we wanted to do it this way because we knew we were going to be talking to a lot of other people besides the President-elect.

That was a concern we had that -- and especially and the bureau itself had that concern that this would be shades of J. Edgar Hoover.

We saw no evidence of meddling with voter tallies.

The whole point of informing the President-elect about the dossier was simply out of a duty to warn if you will.

this is a loss of an iconic figure in this country, a great monument to decency and kindness and whatever you call it, traditional values of this country.

he's remembered yet today at CIA as one of the -- his tenure wasn't very long but a great impact on the agency.

I think that in itself is a sad commentary where what the President says is not taken very seriously.

No, he's not, and by the way, put me in the stupid camp. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here when he said that, you know, nobody has been tougher on the Russians than he has.

What's needed, though, is across the government approach and some leadership and direction, and importantly a sense of urgency across the entire government, and for that matter, across society.

But it's the context in light of everything that's happened since he's become president and, again, his disregard for the threat posed by Russia, which in that context, you know, recent events in the U.K. -- I thought made it particularly…

I think that this has been a mystery about why -- and I'm speaking of the President personally here -- why the singular almost aggressive indifference to the threat that Putin represents, who is bent on undermining this country and…

I certainly don't agree with it. It's kind of ironic after his complaints about rigged elections during the campaign.

I mean, the president, you know, his word carries huge weight. So, if he is the leader in terms of educating the public about what the Russians are doing, that carries a lot of weight.

the credibility of the committee is basically about zero because they are so partisan.

But I think he has publicly acknowledged the threat posed by Russia, which is what really concerns me because right now, Russia is actually waging war in information realm against the United States.

I think he probably does because he has been pretty consistent in his statements about the assessment and certainly in his congressional appearances and has pretty much reaffirmed that the Russians meddled.

I think actually it kind of stretched its logic to suggest that it didn't have some impact on some voter decisions, when you consider the election was settled by less than 80,000 votes in three states which the Russians targeted.

I think at some point we need to make a determination with the Republic of Korea when they are able to defend themselves.

I hope we're thinking about the long game here. Because I do think this is a breakthrough and significant opportunity for us if we play it right.

I think President Moon should be given a lot of credit for his very astute handling of this.