Wednesday on MS NOW’s “The Moment,” former CIA Director Leon Panetta said President Donald Trump was hiding something about switching planes for his flight back from the NATO Summit in Turkey.
Partial transcript as follows:
PANETTA: You know, I’ve always been concerned about security issues with this kind of plane that’s built by another country, regardless of the fact that that country, we may have good relations with that country. The fact is that for from a security point of view, you have got to be concerned that there are going to be efforts to try to gather intelligence. And I’m sure they’ve reviewed the whole plane. But as somebody involved with security, I would be very concerned about making sure that the president’s security is protected. The only way to do that is by having that plane made in the United States and carrying the equipment that is provided by the United States, so that we can assure that the president is not only secure, but safe. So I don’t, I don’t think there’s any question that there are security concerns here. What they are we don’t know, but I’m sure that’s involved.
TUR: Have you ever heard of a situation where the president switches planes like this? I mean, I know usually there are two air force ones. You know, one is not called air force one. When the president travels, there’s always a backup. Usually there’s if there is a problem, there’s it’s a maintenance issue, right? Could it just be a maintenance issue?
PANETTA: Well, it’s a, it’s a brand new plane. If there’s a maintenance issue with a brand new plane that raises even more concerns. I don’t think this is about maintenance. This is a cover story of some kind to try to deploy one plane to Britain and have the president return to the old plane that was Air Force One there. There’s more going on. I think the war in Iran may have some something to do with it. He is in Turkey. It’s right next to Iran. There does have to be some real concerns about the president’s security. Even he himself basically admitted the concern about his personal security. So for for all of those reasons, I think that a decision was made to try to protect the safety of the president.
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