Clapper was in a spot. His backtracking turned to befuddlement.
Wow....they've sure learned from The Messiah and his Team......
If an emp is that effective, I can’t see what deters an enemy from using it. A nuclear attack takes time and allows for retaliation. Sounds like an emp puts you put of commission straitaway. But wdik?
The EMP (electromagnetic pulse) from a high-altitude nuke could destroy large sections of our rickety electric grid by damaging or destroying transformers and relays. Even a fairly small weapon, at the right altitude, could affect hundreds of square miles. (The bigger the bomb, the more area coverage.) Several big EMP bursts could blanket North America, but then we are approaching solar maximum and a huge solar storm could do the deed instead.
The problem is that we don’t make transformers anymore. If we need one, we must order it from a foreign source then wait several weeks for delivery.
Wipe out a few dozen transformers over a wide area and we have a serious problem! Replacement transformers may take months or even years to be delivered, leaving some areas of the country in the dark for a very long time.
As for the underlying question — yes, Russia remains a mortal threat. Look at the way they screamed about missile defense for Eastern Europe.