Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Tuesday the rhetoric surrounding North Korea was "becoming quite incendiary" and called on both President Donald Trump and the media to tamp it down.
"The rhetoric itself is quite serious," Clapper, who served in the Obama White House, told Anderson Cooper on CNN. "What is bothersome to me is, for decades, we've heard this kind of rhetoric coming out of North Korea.
"Typically, we ignore it. Certainly at a presidential level, we ignore it.
"So, the rhetoric itself is not helpful," he said.
"I would also appeal to those in the media to tone down the rhetoric, as well," Clapper added. "Because the rhetoric itself now is becoming quite incendiary.
"I don't think it's very productive to engage in this dueling banjo rhetoric back and forth, which is quite provocative."
Within hours of Trump's statements, Pyongyang responded by saying that it was "carefully examining" a plan to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, which is 2,131 miles southeast.
"Certainly, the North Koreans are going to convey the image of a capability which we cannot confirm they have," Clapper told Cooper.
"So, I'm sort of in the Secretary of State [Rex] Tillerson camp of more moderate rhetoric."
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