Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn says it's a "slap in the face" that Hillary Clinton — denounced by the FBI for her
"extremely careless" handling of classified data — will get classified intelligence briefings during her presidential campaign.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner posted Tuesday, Flynn — said to be on Donald Trump's short list of possible running mates — slammed Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's decision to green-light the briefings.
In a letter Monday night to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Clapper said he wouldn't withhold briefings "from any officially nominated, eligible candidates,"
Fox News reports.
"I totally disagree," Flynn,
who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency until 2014, tells the Examiner. "I think it's a slap in the face to every person who's held a security clearance properly and done all the hard work to maintain that security clearance that is required."
Flynn added the rebuke from Clapper likely frustrates those in the intelligence community as well.
"It's a slap in the face," he repeated. "And I know that people are going to feel that way."
Ryan had requested last week that Clapper "refrain from providing any classified information [to Clinton] for the duration of her candidacy for president."
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