What is wrong with General Michael Hayden? (That’s a rhetorical question.) The retired military man and former director of the CIA went over a cliff with his hatred for Republicans in general and Trump supporters specifically since the situation on the ground in Afghanistan turned disastrous. Trump broke a lot of people and this guy is at the top of the list.
General Hayden has a long history of service to the United States as recounted on his Wikipedia page. He retired as a USAF four-star general. He went on to serve in the intelligence community. You would think that with all this experience, he’d know how to conduct himself as a human being on social media. His Twitter timeline proves the opposite to be true.
He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005. During his tenure as director, he oversaw the controversial NSA surveillance of technological communications between persons in the United States and alleged foreign terrorist groups, which resulted in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
On April 21, 2005, then Lt. Gen Hayden, was confirmed by the United States Senate as the first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and awarded his fourth star-making him “the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the armed forces”.[6] He served in this position under DNI John Negroponte until May 26, 2006.
On May 8, 2006, Hayden was nominated for the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency following the resignation of Porter J. Goss, and on 23 May the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 12–3 to send the nomination to the Senate floor. His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on 26 May by a vote of 78–15. On May 30, 2006, and again the following day at the CIA lobby with President George W. Bush in attendance, Hayden was sworn in as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
On July 1, 2008, Hayden retired from the Air Force after over 41 years of service, and continued to serve as Director of the CIA until February 12, 2009.[7] He received an honorary doctorate from The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. in 2009.
After Trump was elected, Hayden was hired in 2017 by CNN as a national security analyst. You may remember CNN went on a hiring spree and scooped up as many anti-Trump former intelligent officials as they could. They gave lots of time to the likes of John Brennan and James Clapper and James Comey, too. These men are part of the reason that trust in our national intelligence community is shattered. Through their hatred of Trump, they exposed the deep corruption of the agencies and the raw contempt toward Republicans the employees at the top hold. I went through Hayden’s resume since his retirement from the military to show he’s deeply embedded in the Washington establishment. His appointment as Director of the NSA in 1999 would have been a Clinton decision. George W. Bush held him over in the position. Then Bush nominated him as CIA director. He retired in 2008. So, he’s mostly a Bush guy from all indications. A Bush Never-Trumper.
Hayden was particularly out of line with two tweets. Neither originated with him, to be fair, as he really isn’t very clever on social media. One tweet he retweeted and one he agreed with as a quote tweet.
— SophieRoseShebop (@SShebop) August 20, 2021
Good idea https://t.co/pn6xcWTtc8
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) August 22, 2021
This indicates Hayden hates Trump and Trump supporters more than he hates the Taliban, which is odd for a former military man, right? His military brothers and sisters are fighting to get out of Afghanistan and bring along our Afghan partners while Hayden is all comfy at home snarking that those with whom he disagrees should be at the hands of the Taliban. Interesting hot take, General.
He’s a founder of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason. Shouldn’t a scholar of international security know better than to elevate the Taliban into such petty political discussions? Apparently not.
Hayden suffered a stroke in 2018. I might blame that for his unhinged, unprofessional personal behavior but he was behaving badly before the stroke. He endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. He’s very quiet on Twitter about any opinions on Biden’s evacuation efforts in Kabul. Not a single tweet as I write this, other than in support of refugees. Funny how that happens.
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