Donald Trump on Wednesday morning denied a report by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that the GOP presidential nominee asked a foreign policy adviser multiple times why the U.S. can’t use its atomic weapons.
“There is no truth to this,” Hope Hicks, spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Scarborough, on Morning Joe, cited an unnamed source as telling him that information.
“Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump. And three times [Trump] asked about the use of nuclear weapons,” Scarborough claimed. “Three times he asked at one point ‘if we had them why can’t we use them.'”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski, astounded, said, “Be careful Americans. And be careful Republican leaders. Your party is blowing up.”
Scarborough’s comments were made while former Director of Central Intelligence and four-star Gen. Michael Hayden was being interviewed on the show. Scarborough asked Hayden how quickly nuclear weapons could be deployed if a president gave the order.
Said Hayden, “It’s scenario dependent, but the system is designed for speed and decisiveness. It’s not designed to debate the decision.”
Watch: What are some major concerns about Trump’s handling of national security? Hayden and #morningjoe weigh in. https://t.co/FyFoSmJlJI
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 3, 2016
