Former CIA and NSA honcho Michael Hayden said Sunday that he will not be voting for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
“I’m uncomfortable with the nominees of both of the major political parties,” Hayden told John Catsimatidis during his radio show, “The Cats Roundtable.”
“A lot of my friends are saying yeah, that’s nice, Hayden, but you have to vote for one of them,” he continued. “I’m not so sure I do.”
Hayden said that a vote in a democracy is sacrosanct, and that he did not feel comfortable entrusting either candidate with his.
“A vote is taking our sacred suffrage, our chunk of sovereignty, and bestowing it on someone because he or she is worthy, and I’m having trouble getting to that point with either of the major candidates.”
He acknowledged the “practical” reality that “somebody is going to win,” but hoped that by denying his vote to Clinton and Trump, he might mitigate the sense of authority that either might have upon entering office.
“For these two, I’m hoping they don’t think they’re sweeping into office with some powerful mandate,” he said. “For people like me that decide to vote for some other choice, might deny them that sense of mandate, which would make, I think, things even worse.”
Though Hayden has in the past suggested that Clinton would be better for national security than Trump, the former CIA director has been a vocal critic of Clinton’s use of a private email server to transmit classified information as secretary of state, as well as her response to the Benghazi attacks. He has also often criticized Trump for being inconsistent and playing loose with facts.
