Former CIA Director John Brennan John Owen BrennanJournalism or partisanship? The media's mistakes of 2016 continue in 2020 Comey on Clinton tweet: 'I regret only being involved in the 2016 election' Ex-CIA Director Brennan questioned for 8 hours in Durham review of Russia probe MORE on Thursday explained his intense criticism of President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE, saying that he is hoping to shake "some sense" into the president's aides and Republican lawmakers.

"When I see the types of things that Mr. Trump is doing, yes, I will speak out," Brennan said on MSNBC. "I'm hoping to be able to shake some — quite frankly — some sense into the people around Mr. Trump and those on the Hill."

ADVERTISEMENT

"The more that they tolerate and they make excuses for his behavior and his performance, the more they're enabling him, the more they're encouraging him to do these types of things," he added.

Brennan, who served as CIA director under former President Obama, has been sharply critical of Trump since he took office last year.

He ramped up his criticism this week after Trump's performance in a controversial news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Trump appeared to side with Putin's denials over the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

After that news conference, Brennan hit Trump on Twitter, calling his comments "imbecilic" and "nothing short of treasonous."

That prompted a blistering response from Trump, who called Brennan "a very bad person" during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson that aired Tuesday.

"I think Brennan is a very bad guy, and if you look at it, a lot of things happened under his watch," Trump said. "I think he's a very bad person."

Brennan responded to that attack on Thursday, saying on MSNBC that he is simply "trying to ring the alarm bell" on issues that he believes are cause for concern.

"Some of my tweets I will acknowledge are rather shrill if not strident," he said. "Maybe I'm just an intelligence officer and I'm trying to ring the bell, because I see all the warning signs here, especially when it comes to national security."