Former top DHS official: Trump return to White House would be ‘disaster’ for intelligence community

Brian Murphy, a former senior Department of Homeland Security official, warned on Sunday that the disinformation-related dangers surrounding former President Trump’s possible 2024 presidential bid would result in “disaster.”

“I think it would be a disaster,” Murphy said of Trump’s possible 2024 presidential campaign on ABC’s “This Week.”

“He puts out disinformation, and that’s an existential threat to democracy, and he is one of the best at putting it out and hurting this country,” Murphy said.

Brian Murphy, a former senior DHS official, says that a return of Pres. Trump to the White House in 2024 “would be a disaster” for the U.S. intelligence community.

“He puts out disinformation—and that’s an existential threat to democracy.” https://t.co/fNzejVYONX pic.twitter.com/f9qjbyGHND

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 26, 2021

He added that such disinformation “polarizes us.”

“Political polarization in this country is at the worst it’s ever been,” Murphy said before noting that disinformation and polarization are considered leading threats to the intelligence community. 

Murphy now works for Logically, a company that combats disinformation globally. 

Last year, Murphy was a whistleblower and issued a complaint that top political appointees pushed him to change intelligence assessments to better align them with remarks made by Trump. 

“It was my intent to work within the system to protect classified information. That’s what the whistleblower process is set up for, and that was my intent,” Murphy said on Sunday of his 2020 whistleblower complaint.