Posts
Clapper
Turns On Brennan: “John And His Rhetoric Have Become An Issue”
Former
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper threw former CIA
Director John Brennan under the bus on Sunday.
Former
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper threw former CIA
Director John Brennan under the bus on Sunday, telling CNN‘s “State
of the Union” that “John and his rhetoric have become an issue in
and of itself,” adding “John is subtle like a freight train and
he’s gonna say what’s on his mind.”
Somebody wants
to keep their security clearance…
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper threw former CIA Director John Brennan under the bus on Sunday, telling CNN‘s “State of the Union” that “John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself,” adding “John is subtle like a freight train and he’s gonna say what’s on his mind.”
Somebody wants
to keep their security clearance…
Brennan’s
latest “rhetoric,” of course, is his Sunday
morning threat to
sue the Trump administration following the stripping of his security
clearance.
That
said, Clapper empathized with Brennan over shared concerns regarding
what they say is a threat to the United States from the Trump
administration.
“I
think that the common denominator among all of us [in the
intelligence community] that have been speaking up … is genuine
concern about the jeopardy and threats to our institutions,”
said Clapper.
Brennan’s
increasingly inflammatory commentary of late has also drawn the
attention of Congressional GOP. On Thursday, Senate Intelligence
Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) slammed Brennan for
“purport[ing] to know, as fact, that the Trump campaign colluded
with a foreign power.”
“If
his statement is based on intelligence he has seen since leaving
office, it constitutes an intelligence breach.
If he has some other personal knowledge of or evidence of collusion,
it should be disclosed to the special counsel, not The New York
Times,” said Burr, who added that Trump had the “full authority”
to rescind Brennan’s clearance if the former CIA Director’s
statements were “purely politicial and based on conjecture.”
President
Trump promptly tweeted Burr’s statement:
.....released in 2017. If his statement is based on intelligence he has seen since leaving office, it constitutes an intelligence breach......” Richard Burr (R-NC) Senate Intel Cmte Chair @LouDobbs
On
Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC‘s
“Rachel Maddow Show,” Brennan defiantly stood behind
his statement that Trump committed treason during the
Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he
called “nothing short of treasonous,” before walking it back
moments later.
“After
Helsinki, you were stark, and even a little bit scary in your
criticism of his behavior. You said it rose to treason,” said
Maddow.
“I
said it was nothing short of treasonous,” replied Brennan.
Maddow
pushed back: “In this current controversy, that specific comment
has been singled out by a number of people as a comment that maybe,
by you, crossed the line, that was maybe –.”
“Crossed
what line?” Brennan responded.
Maddow
said that she wasn’t going to question Brennan’s right to his
remarks, though then asked “But do you stand by that
consideration, and can you explain, can you elaborate what you mean
by treasonous? It’s a very serious allegation.”
Brennan
answered: “I
know what the Russians did in interfering in the election. I have
100% confidence in what they did. And for Mr. Trump to stand on that
stage in Helsinki, with all the world’s eyes upon him, and to
basically [say] he wouldn’t — he doesn’t understand why would
the Russians interfere in the election. He’s
given Mr. Putin and the Russians a pass time after time after time,
and he keeps referring to this whole investigation as a witch hunt,
as bogus, as — and to me, this was an attack against the
foundational principle of our great republic, which is, the right of
all Americans to choose their elected leaders. And for Mr. Trump to
so cavalierly just dismiss that, yes, sometimes my Irish comes out,
and — in my tweets, and I did say that it rises to and exceeds the
level of high crimes and misdemeanors and is nothing short of
treasonous. … I
didn’t mean that he committed treason, but it was a term that I
used, nothing short of treasonous.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.