Hyperbole, much?
That this is how he sees this event shows him as simply another inside-the-Beltway swamp dweller, despite his past service.
Thanks for your service, admiral, enjoy your retirement pay, forget that security clearance. You’ve demonstrated you don’t fully understand the concept of elected citizen leadership, and we don’t want you in government, or close to it. We wish to remain a people with a government, and not become a government with a people, which seems where you would have us go.