A former top military intel chief under President Obama said Wednesday that he advises both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on foreign policy, and said he could support either of them as president.
“I think either of them would be fine,” Michael Flynn told a roundtable of panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning.
Flynn is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, among other positions. He made a point Wednesday to tell the roundtable before talking about the 2016 race that America missed the rise of the Islamic State “really badly.”
“One of the things that we have to face up to is just how difficult it is going to be to do what I think the president has asked the military and the nation to do — I think I would call the strategy a minimalist strategy focused on Iraq and Syria and it’s much, much worse than that,” Flynn said.
According to Flynn, the U.S. “didn’t want to see” that al Qaeda in Iraq was going to morph into the Islamic State.
After admitting to the rumors that he has advised Trump, the Republican front-runner, and Cruz, his top rival, Flynn said that just because he has met with candidates doesn’t mean he can say he agrees with what both say.
“My role and what I believe is that we have to take a really deep look at the way the world is unfolding, the reality that we face, and I think we spend too much time beating each other over the head about the poor decisions that have been made frankly over the last 16 years,” Flynn said. He said the U.S. has to look at “incredible global problems” going forward and who can deal with them best, such as the rise of the Islamic State.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you I agree with everything that they say and where I’m at with what we’re trying to do is my role, and frankly for my entire life, certainly for my entire adult life, it’s been about what’s best for this country,” Flynn said when pressed again on who he would pick between Trump and Cruz.
“And so when we go forward and we start to look at people who are looking for what I believe is good advice, I think I provide good advice, I provide certainly candid, my best honest, expert judgment on certain things,” he said. “I appreciate the fact that they have asked.”
“They’re both worthy individuals who would make great presidents, either or,” Flynn concluded.
