Ex-CIA chief: Vote to ‘reject inflammatory rhetoric’

Former CIA Director John Brennan on Tuesday urged his Twitter followers to “vote your conscience” in the upcoming midterm elections.

In a tweet, the former Obama administration CIA chief and frequent critic of President Trump said that he will be voting for candidates who “reject inflammatory rhetoric.”

“As the child of an immigrant, I will vote for candidates who believe in America living up to its values & remaining the world’s melting pot,” Brennan tweeted.

“I will vote for individuals who are honest, have integrity, reject inflammatory rhetoric & want to bring us together. Vote your conscience!”

As the child of an immigrant, I will vote for candidates who believe in America living up to its values & remaining the world’s melting pot. I will vote for individuals who are honest, have integrity, reject inflammatory rhetoric & want to bring us together. Vote your conscience!

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) October 30, 2018

{mosads}Brennan’s tweet noting that he is the “child of an immigrant” comes after Trump announced in an interview released Tuesday his intention to sign an executive order ending birthright citizenship in the U.S.

The suggestion has rankled Democrats and divided Republicans just days before midterms. Legal experts widely agree that an executive order ending the practice would likely not stand, but the proposal has ignited a new political debate over immigration and the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

The tweet also follows a week of violence, including a mass shooting that left 11 dead at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the shooting of two black patrons at a Kentucky grocery store that is being investigated as a hate crime, and a series of mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats and former government officials who have exchanged criticism with Trump.

Critics of the president have blamed his rhetoric and attacks on the media and political opponents for the current political environment.

GOP leaders, meanwhile, have pushed back on any suggestion that the president’s rhetoric may have motivated either Cesar Sayoc Jr. or Robert Bowers, the two men charged in mailing the pipe bombs and carrying out the synagogue shooting, respectively.

“The only person responsible for carrying out either of these heinous acts were the individuals who carried them out,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.