Top US general defends Donald Trump
General Michael Flynn discusses his role as an informal adviser to the presumptive US Republican presidential nominee.
In a special web extra, General Michael Flynn, former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under President Barack Obama, discusses his informal role as an adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
When asked if he supports Trump’s proposal to kill the families of suspected terrorists, Flynn tells Mehdi Hasan: “I would have to see the circumstances of that situation.”
“These are very difficult political decisions,” he adds.
Flynn also refuses to condemn Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US.
“What I support … is that we must understand where these individuals are coming from,” Flynn says. He adds that he supports the “vetting of individuals and the proper screening of individuals who are coming from certain parts of the world like Syria”.
The former DIA chief says, however, that he is advising Trump to be more precise with his language.
“There must be more precision in the use of the language that he uses as the potential leader of the free world,” he says. “Those are the … pieces of advice that I’m trying to get into him.”
UpFront returns on Friday, May 27 at 19:30 GMT.