Past Army associates of Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn have apparently found themselves absolutely baffled and appalled by their old colleague’s behavior ever since he got close to the now-disgraced former president — and they’re openly calling him out on it.
The last we really heard from the retired U.S. Army general was last week when he plead the Fifth Amendment during his testimony before the January 6th House Select Committee, after he was matter of factly asked whether he believed in the peaceful transfer of power, yet his own former associates watched as he proudly chanted “Lock her up!” during the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to an eye-opening new report from The Atlantic.
James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, said, “He spent a lot of time deployed, maybe too much, as it turns out. He spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan chasing terrorists, and I think that, to some extent, that consumed him.”
Another high-ranking officer who spent time working very closely with Flynn out in the field agreed with Clapper’s assessment, adding that it seems Flynn’s time in the war on terror seems to have thrown the retired general off-kilter, mentally.
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“If you spend years hunting terrorists and honing this killing machine,” he said, some people “get unhinged by all that.”
Friends of retired lieutenant general and Flynn’s longtime commander and mentor, Stanley McChrystal have said that Stanley was left absolutely horrified by Flynn’s statements at the RNC. However, McChrystal, as well as Keith Kellogg, another retired lieutenant general and his colleague at the White House, declined to be interviewed on the matter.
“Out of the respect for our service together,” McChrystal said, “and years of closer friendship, I’m now just going to stay silent.”
But, the high-ranking officer revealed to The Atlantic that the former Trump-era National Security Advisor may have always had a conspiratorial and extremist mindset that was merely kept hidden by his uniform and presence in the US military.
“The uniform constrains people’s political and emotional qualities,” the high-ranking officer explained. “You can misjudge a person because they are constrained by the job and the uniform,” but when he’s out of uniform “the personality that may have been constrained comes out.”
Clapper went on to reveal that the termination by former president Barack Obama left Flynn absolutely humiliated.
“Getting terminated a year early ate at him,” Clapper revealed. “He had a grievance, and it just, it was corrosive with him, and he became a bitter, angry man and just latched on to anybody who was opposed to Obama and the Obama administration. That’s my armchair analysis of what happened.”
The Atlantic spoke to numerous sources who stated that they believe Flynn has experienced cognitive decline or a psychological disorder. However, only one of them — Gen. Barry McCaffrey — agreed to go on record with his speculations.
“I think he was having mental health problems,” McCaffrey stated.
“As people get older, in particular, and as circumstances push in on them,” he said, adding, “every year there’s some fairly small number who have mental-health problems … So yeah, some of them go bad. But Flynn went bad in one of the most spectacular manners we’ve ever witnessed. You know, it wasn’t just bad judgment. It was demented behavior.”
Read the full report from The Atlantic here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
