(CNN) Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had distorted his words when alleging the intelligence community "spied" on his campaign.

The President tweeted Wednesday morning, "'Trump should be happy that the FBI was SPYING on his campaign' No, James Clapper, I am not happy. Spying on a campaign would be illegal, and a scandal to boot!"

In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead," Clapper responded to Trump's accusations: "That is a distortion of what I said, in fact I had an aversion to the use of the term."

When asked outright if the intelligence community spied on Trump and his campaign, Clapper said, "No, we did not."

Clapper continued to address the recent barrage of both tweets and oral attacks from the President and his allies by reiterating that his work as director of national intelligence related to Trump and his campaign was about trying to determine what the Russians were doing to interfere with American elections.

Read More