Piers Morgan blames Barack Obama for rise of Isis and claims he spends more time playing golf than attending intelligence meetings

The MailOnline’s new US Editor-at-Large appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity on Monday

The broadcaster likes to point the finger, but isn’t it all exhausting? (Getty)

First up in his new role as the MailOnline's US Editor-at-Large, Piers Morgan appeared on the sensational Fox News show Hannity to be interviewed by the equally sensational Sean Hannity.

The topic of their discussion? The apparent shortcomings of Barack Obama, who Morgan criticised for blaming the intelligence community, rather than his own “lack of decision making”, for the rise of Isis.

Discussing the President’s recent claims that officials had “underestimated” the threat of the terrorist organisation, also known as the Islamic State, he told Hannity:

“It just struck me that Obama, when he threw James Clapper [top US Intelligence Official] under the bus… It was an extraordinary moment to me… that a president would say ‘they’ about his own intelligence services and not ‘we’.

“Why he would want people think, ‘This has nothing to do with me, gov.’ And when I look at the spread of Isis through the Middle East, a lot of it comes back seems to me to Obama's foreign policy strategy of, ‘I like to lead from behind. America should go away from being the global policeman to being the leader from behind.’

“America shouldn't be leading anything from behind. America is at its best a great superpower… America has to be confident, bold, and strong and decisive, and it's that lack of decision-making that I think leads to the issues we now face.”

He went on to brand Obama’s insistence that Isis is not an Islamic group “just nonsense rhetoric”.

“Because Isis clearly is an Islamic fundamentalist organisation. It's a terror group,” he added.

He then criticised the President for spending more time “whacking a ball around” than attending his own intelligence briefings.

“It's not good enough to simply say, ‘Yeah, I'm really upset about this beheading,’ and then seven minutes later, as Obama did, go to a golf course and be seen goofing around on the first tee.

Elsewhere in the interview, Morgan reiterated his support for tighter legislation on gun control – yet another matter he felt the President had failed to adequately confront during his term in office.

“I feel with Obama that his real issue is what is his legacy going to be and what kind of America does he stand for and represent? And that's where I think he's been a big disappointment, and he must be to himself because what will be his legacy?

“You know, I had big issues with him personally over issues like gun control. You and I disagree over that, but with Obama I watched him go down to Newtown, look those families in the eye and promise, ‘I will get action,’ and then deliver precisely nothing. So if you were a believer in Obama's ability to deliver, then that was a pretty crushing disappointment on an issue dear to my heart.”