On CNN’s State of the Union, he said “I think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally, and that the big news here is the Russian interference in our election system, I think as well our institutions are under assault internally.”

When pressed further to get exactly what he meant by US institutions being under assault internally from the President, Clapper responded, “Exactly.” Clapper also charged the other branches of the federal government to step up  their roles as a check on the executive. “The founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built-in system of checks and balances,” I feel as though that is under assault and is eroding.”

Clapper also said Sunday that the President and the White House are wrong to cite Clapper’s previous Senate testimony on the questions about alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as proof that no such collusion exists, emphasising that no one should portray his comments as “exculpatory”, something the President has done repeatedly on Twitter.

  “The bottom line is I don’t know if there was collusion, political collusion,” Clapper told Tapper. “I don’t know of any evidence to it. So I can’t refute it, and I can’t confirm it.”