American democracy is "under assault" on separate fronts from President Donald Trump and Russia, the former US intelligence chief has warned.
The comments come after the abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey amid a probe into Moscow's meddling in US elections and possible ties with the Trump campaign.
As Trump works to fast-track Comey's successor, lawmakers from both parties urged him to steer clear of any politicians for the job and say he must "clean up the mess that he mostly created."
"I think, in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally - and that's the big news here, is the Russian interference in our election system," said James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence. "I think as well our institutions are under assault internally."
When he was asked, "Internally, from the president?" Clapper said, "Exactly."
Clapper said America's founding fathers had created three co-equal branches of government with checks and balances, but with Trump as president, that was now "eroding."
The White House had no immediate comment. No White House aide appeared on the Sunday news shows, leaving Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, to defend Trump. "The president is the CEO of the country. He can hire and fire whoever he wants," she said.
Representatives from both parties have reprimanded Trump's actions, which included shifting explanations from the White House for Comey's dismissal and an ominous tweet by Trump that warned Comey against leaks to the press because he may have "tapes" of their conversations.
Politicians are calling for a new FBI director without any political background and say Trump would need to hand over to Congress any taped conversations with Comey, if they exist.
Less than a week after Trump fired Comey, the administration has interviewed at least eight candidates to be FBI director, and Trump has said a decision could come before Friday when he leaves on his first overseas trip as president.
Trump abruptly fired Comey on Tuesday and later said the FBI boss was a "showboat" and "grandstander" who was not doing a good job.
Trump said in an interview with NBC that the Russia investigation factored into his decision to fire Comey.
