Why Aren’t These Guys Running for President?

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.

It was a raucous Vice Presidential debate Tuesday night, with both candidates repeatedly talking over each other, and each disparaging the positions of the other’s running mate. Unlike last week’s Presidential debate, where the focus was more on domestic issues and character, approximately half of the VP debate surprisingly centered on national security issues. 

We asked former CIA and NSA Director Mike Hayden, who assessed last week’s Presidential debate for The Cipher Brief, to give us his thoughts on whether Republican VP nominee Mike Pence and Democratic VP nominee Tim Kaine shed any new light on the key national security positions articulated by the top of their tickets, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“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+

Categorized as:InternationalTagged with:

Related Articles

How Safe Would We Be Without Section 702?

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that has generated controversy around fears of the potential for abuse has proven to be crucial […] More

Search

Close