Clinton at the DNC: National Security Implications

Posted: July 29th, 2016

By General Michael Hayden

General Michael V. Hayden is a retired four-star General in the United States Air Force; he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006-2009 and as Director of the National Security Agency from 1999-2005.

The Democratic National Convention wrapped up on Thursday with nominee Hillary Clinton looking to establish herself as the “steady” hand on national security issues, compared to her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump. Clinton sought to prop up her national security credentials with speeches by high profile supporters such as former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta and retired Marine General John Allen, and used her acceptance speech to make a pitch to voters that she is the only candidate capable of serving as commander in chief.

The Cipher Brief’s Mackenzie Weinger spoke with former CIA and NSA director General Michael Hayden to get his take on Clinton and the Democratic Party’s appeal to voters on national security, the impact of Trump’s comments to Russia in the last week and whether he would support Clinton after watching the convention.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+