John Brennan was and is a career public servant and one of the old-guard intelligence guys. He’s worked for various presidents and agencies, and perhaps he is best known for serving as Obama’s Director of Central Intelligence in Obama’s second term. He’s not a political operative, he’s just one of those generally unmemorable, wonkish dudes who has worked in government for decades. Brennan is retired now, but he’s spent much of the past two years ringing all the alarms about Donald Trump. Again, Brennan’s criticism of Trump is never political, in the sense of “oh, I just hate Republicans.” No, Brennan has always seen Trump for who he is, a con man, a traitor, a pathetic fool who has been compromised by a foreign adversary. Brennan also has spoken a lot about how Trump undermines the office of the presidency and undermines people’s faith in America in general. You know, just the kinds of day-to-day observations most of us make on a daily basis.
Brennan occasionally makes appearances on cable news shows (he’s a fan of Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show, as am I), but most of his criticisms have just been what we all do too: he hate-tweets about Trump quite often. This is a sample of Brennan dragging Trump:
It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation. https://t.co/eI9HaCec1m
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) August 14, 2018
So on Wednesday, with headlines dominated with Omarosa’s revelations and how Sarah Sanders was incapable of guaranteeing that a tape of Trump saying the n-word does NOT exist, Trump decided to distract, to change the narrative, to be the big bigly man who does petty as f-ck moves like… punishing his critics by canceling their security clearances.
President Donald Trump has decided to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s clearance for access to classified information, he said in a statement read by press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday. The courtesy of allowing a former administration official to retain security clearance has been “outweighed by the risk posed by his erratic conduct and behavior,” Trump said in the statement. “Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.”
He added that Brennan “has recently leveraged his status … to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and on television, about this administration.”
Hector Projector strikes again. Yes, Bigly, it’s JOHN BRENNAN who goes on TV and acts like an erratic madman. Not you. Never you. Brennan responded by tweeting:
This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent. https://t.co/TNzOxhP9ux
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) August 15, 2018
And he also appeared on Nicolle Wallace’s show on Wednesday, where he told her that no Trump official has even contacted him to tell him directly that his clearance has been revoked. Also, reporters noticed that in the first memo released publicly – the memo with Trump’s statement – the date on the memo was July 26th. The White House has since re-released the memo without that date. Shenanigans, I tell you. Petty shenanigans and treason.
Also: I think I’m Nicolle’s #1 fan girl. I love how ruthless she is.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Trump, by being a petulant child, has just gifted Brennan a place in the news cycle and a larger following.
However, this, the whole Omarosa fiasco and everything else going on is a distraction from Trumps criminal shit and the mueller investigation. Let’s not play I to their hands.
It really is multiple layers of distraction right now.
If Paulie is found guilty (jury is deliberating today), buckle up.
Does anyone realize it would only take TWO Republicans in Congress to end this? Just two, who haven’t sold their souls, to show honour and patriotism to the laws of the country they swore an oath to uphold. It makes me just want to cry, and if I do, I’m afraid I won’t stop 😭
Thank you for your years of dedication and service JB. Keep fighting for us all!
@Jan I have cried about it. I knew how horrible trump would be as president but I never imagined the entire Republican Party would sell out our country to protect this traitor. We have fallen fast and we haven’t reached bottom yet.
{{hugs Tate}}. This is what I fear the most.
Flake and Corker need to step up. They are retiring so why are they not doing anything??
@Jan Thank you and a big hug back to you. I hope we see our way through this.
Omarosa just released the tape of Lara Trump offering her a job. If she was so terrible at the White House, why did they try to hire her for the campaign? Oh wait, Lara says why, they need to keep a lid on Omarosa’s dirt. Vile barely begins to describe trump, but the fact that he uses his kids and their spouses to do his dirty work takes him to an entirely new level of vile.
Yep. He’s going to get rid of everybody and anybody who can speak bad against him. Hopefully, DUMPS days are numbered. I still hold out hope that this POS sc*mbag gets impeached.
But then you end up with pence and im really scared of him. He’s smart, he’s well connected, he scares me more than this one ever will
He has absolutely no charisma and his own party hates him to the point that he was going to lose the primary in his re-election campaign for governor.
Pence BELIEVES in making Handmaid’s Tale the reality of the US. The extremist right wing, willing to stomach Trump in order to eradicate legal freedoms, will stomach and support Pence too.
Pence is definitely not smart. He just seems that way compared with Trump.
I would never describe Pence as “smart”. He’s basically just a useful idiot to Trump; someone who will be obedient, loyal and doting.
Yglesias did a short write-up about how dumb Pence is a while back..maybe 10 years ago. See if I can find it…
Here: https://thinkprogress.org/mike-pence-2d484a554a54/
When he was in Congress in 2001 he wrote a long paper about how smoking doesn’t kill. LOLZ. Dude’s a moron.
Trump is a moron. His fanbase is composed of morons. Pence may be a moron, but do not discount the power of morons. And do not discount the willingness of Repubs to set aside their beefs with Pence and close ranks around him.
Huh??
I didn’t discount anything. I’m simply taking issue with this notion that Pence is smart. He is not.
Pence is a fundamentalist, but he’s bound by the law, so no, no Handmaid’s Tale. He also can’t single-handily overturn Roe v. Wade. The Republicans in general know they’d lose too many votes if they tried to overturn Roe, so they appease both sides by talking big and doing nothing.
This Republican Congress isn’t going to do squat about this clown.The only thing that may weaken Trump is the economy tanking which isn’t happening now .
The Democratic State Attorneys General who are suing the US government for a multitude of his sins may be a saving grace.
Keeping security clearances for people like Brennan is a favor to the government, not the person. It makes it easier to call on them for advice about situations where they have special experience and expertise. Brennan doesn’t need a security clearance for his own purposes.
President Tweeter is just following Nixon’s playbook, in this case going after his “political enemies” (i.e., critics) by using the power of the Presidency even when they have done nothing illegal or unethical. Tweeter should have read more than the first page of the playbook – Nixon’s actions against his “enemies list” ended up as an article of impeachment as abuse of Presidential power.
It’s also an obstruction of justice, blocking them from reading their own records to refresh their memories during depositions and trial testimony.
Damn didn’t even think of that.
LP-He is attacking the Boston Globe now. Sigh.
About an hour ago, a Boston Globe editor was on CNN. Saw it as I passed the workplace TV. Such well-used “executive time”!
Guess he heard about the 300-plus pro-press editorials running today. We know he won’t read them.
+11111
Yeah, as usual Trump is disgusting and short sighted and petty af. And the deplorables have steadily, mindlessly been trashing Brennan on Twitter and it drives me crazy. Even two years in, I still can’t wrap my head around this Trumpian nightmare we are in.
Yes but that was when the repubs were concerned about preserving the constitution and democracy..this is no longer the case. Tricky dick’s crimes paled compared to the dirt surrounding trump, but his party went to him and said time to go. The self centered stupidity of this group knows no bounds.
Didn’t Trump tell WSJ that he revoked the security clearance because Brennan was one of the people who started the Russia investigation? So obstructive, so foolish to admit it publicly.
Exactly, this is disgraceful as hell and transparent too. The world is watching and it’s so embarrassing.
Manafort’s case goes to the jury today. His defense did not put on a single witness. Smells like Manafort expects a pardon. But he can’t be pardoned on the state charges, which carry about 15 years, and any pardon will mean he can’t invoke the 5th Amendment when called upon to give evidence against Trump.
i was assuming that there was some jury tampering going on and the defense knows he will get off…I just don’t trust any of these corrupt asshats.
Also the judge was acting squirrelly throughout the trial.
Yeah this theory is all over Twitter with some legal experts weighing in.
I just have no hope left. Sigh.
Tate, the judge was sketchy af. I’m starting to think the whole trial was a farce. F%^k.
I wonder if even Trump would dare pardon Manafort. It’s so obvious that he’s a crook on a large scale. They may have paid attention to his crimes at this time because so much evidence was unearthed in the Russia investigation, but that doesn’t change the fact that he committed big time financial crimes. He just would have had a better chance of getting away with it if he and Gates hadn’t slithered into the Trump campaign. A special counsel has the right to pursue any other crimes revealed during the course of the main investigation.
Trump likewise probably would have skipped along committing his own financial crimes with no consequence if he hadn’t run for POTUS. His less than blameless life just couldn’t hold up under POTUS-level scrutiny. This has happened to others as well over the years. It’s much harder to bribe and threaten your way out of investigations at higher levels. His entanglement with the Russians matters when he’s POTUS, and violations of campaign finance laws have taken down better men than Trump.
What makes me crazy angry is that Trump’s criminal and moral shortcomings were there for all to see during the run-up to the election, but were largely glossed over by the mainstream media. He never should have survived the campaign cycle. Presidential elections are supposed to bring next-level scrutiny to the candidates, with every little flaw and misstep examined and judged (like what happened with Hillary). Yet it seemed like time after time the press just ignored all his crap because they didn’t think he had an actual snowball’s chance of getting elected and his antics were good for ratings.
I will defend the free press to my dying breath, but they really dropped the ball on this one – they sacrificed their civic duty at the altar of ratings numbers and increased cash flow.
I’ve heard it speculated that he didn’t mount a strong defense because they don’t want to be pinned down on the next trial. If they put too much on record, it would limit their options on the next trial. I don’t know much about how the next trial differs from this one. I wish I understood it better.
Manfort’s team rested with the “hey, nobody had a problem with the illegal behavior of my client until those pesky DOJ folks started looking into it” defense
He’s such an egotistical prick, he can’t take truthful critism from intellegent people like Bennan.Trump is panicking and the more stupid things like this he does, makes it obvious that he’s hiding big secrets. I wonder if he realizes why these people still get security clearance and how important they can be for our country? Trump is quickly becoming a fucking dictator
“I wonder if he realizes why these people still get security clearance and how important they can be for our country?”
of course not. all he realizes is that Brennan was “mean” to him; therefore, revenge is all he cares about. petty, juvenile, scaredy-cat revenge that doesn’t really affect Brennan’s ability to continue to speak out against him.
Trump put all Americans in danger because he is a petty toddler.
His administration is packed with unqualified sycophants, and if tragedy strikes, they will seriously need true experts to rush in and save the day.
Seriously Trump deserves the Saudi style punishment of 100 lashes done in public, every Friday.
so how long do we think it will take the jury in the manafort trial to deliberate? 🙂
stay tuned, orange man…we can already see you tweet-panicking
It’s all financial stuff and there are numerous counts that have to be reviewed individually. Financial stuff takes a while for a jury to sift through. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a decision tomorrow.
Trump will pardon him on all Federal charges and the Republicans, in Congress and out, will support him in it.
Do you have any guesses as to what held up the trial? Speculation was that it might have something to do with the non-sequestered jury.
Not surprised. drump is barrelling towards disaster as he clings to Putin to save him from prosecution for treason, money laundering, and years of the Russia mafia financing drump’s life.
Putin is deeply embedded in our democracy. Rohrabacher, Nunes, Paul are being paid by Russia with other elected officials lining up hoping to profit. drump is trying to cut down people who are calling out all of them.
Emperor Zero is pulling cards from two petty decks of cards. The strongman deck last seen in Hungary and Venezuela has the bitch trying to silence political critics (revoking security clearances and/or firing) and the mob deck has him trying to silence co-conspirators (witness tampering/witness intimidation/obstruction).
Hey Asshat, you know Mueller can read your tweets right?
John Brennan is the epitome of a patriot. For decades he has worked to keep our country safe. Does the Orange One even know that it was Brennan who oversaw the hunt for Osama Bin Laden? Does he have any clue about the value of Brennan’s institutional knowledge? Brennan will continue to speak out against this corrupt administration, and DT will continue being the petty tyrant that he is. God help us.
Kaiser, I also love Nicole Wallace. The contrast between her as Press Secretary and petty Sarah is incredible.
The Deplorables on Twitter will tell you Brennan didn’t do anything, it was all the Seals on the ground that made it happen. They said the same thing during Obama’s tenure because God forbid they credit Barack for anything.
I know it’s unhealthy but I hate these people with every fiber of my being.
I know. I think that DT can’t sink lower, and that I can’t hate him more than I do currently, but I’m always wrong on both counts. My doctor calls my headaches TIMs…Trump Induced Migraines.
“My doctor calls my headaches TIMs…Trump Induced Migraines.”
Ha!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/revoke-my-security-clearance-too-mr-president/2018/08/16/8b149b02-a178-11e8-93e3-24d1703d2a7a_story.html
I never comment to anything on here but this is worth a read. It is the response of William H. McRaven, the retired Navy admiral who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden, the Trump revoking Brennan’s security clearances
That’s a power statement, Eugenie. Thanks for sharing.
And he admitted he did it over the russia investigation. To the wall st journal late yesterday. That’s what scares me most. He seems to have a plan to shut Mueller down.
He does and I think he will.
And we will take to the streets when he does. Be prepared.
Yes.
Love Nichole’s show!
Thank you for that headline.
Today’s tweet storm has begun! With an attack on the press and the Constitution front and center. Today, hundreds of newspapers are editorializing about the necessity of a free press for our republic to survive. The idea of this protest came from the Boston Globe. Show your support by buying a copy of your local paper today and read what the others have to say through this link the Globe has provided. https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2018/08/freepress/?p1=HP_special
Oh lord. I checked about an hour ago and there was nothing. It was a relief. Well, that’s over.
Anyone else think Sarah Huckabee Sanders seemed “over it” yesterday during the press briefing? Not sure if it was because she made such a “factual error” (can we just call it a lie?) or because she knows the tape of Trump saying the N-word may force her to have to defend him for saying such a thing. The press corps seems like they aren’t playing with her anymore. My prediction is she will leave this fall and Anthony Scaramucci will be back in the fold.
I can’t stand to listen to her, but I see in the above photo how she is being worn down from her duty to be vicious, dismissive and cruel. She’s falling apart.
…searching for her tiny violin.
I want these people back. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YsNHhJTZAM0
Sobbing. President Obama truly had all the best people. I watched the entire inauguration in 2009. It was thrilling.
Great respect for you, Aretha Franklin. Thank you for your extraordinary gifts.
So Brennan’s security clearance gets revoked and yet Dotard Junior still has his despite meeting with that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has close ties to the Kremlin. [Shakes head and reaches for wine bottle…]
The memo was date July 26th and only announced yesterday. This means there are others who have their clearance revoked that he has not announced. I don’t even know the legality of not telling the person until weeks later but i can almost guarantee we are going to hear about Clapper, Comey and the others when the manafort verdict comes out or at other times where distraction is required.
The plan to do this was a blip in the news cycle right after the Helsinki summit.
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/23/631619750/trump-wants-to-revoke-security-clearances-of-ex-officials-whove-criticized-him
Exactly. His administration was holding this to use as a distraction. He’s so corrupt in so many ways.
How I wish mainstream media would hire you as a headline writer, Kaiser!
Please don’t call him a petty bitch. It’s an insults to dogs, and to women.