The White House is making it clear to intelligence officials from current and former presidential administrations: criticize Donald Trump and you’ll lose your security clearance.
In today’s White House briefing, spokesmonster Sarah Sanders said Donald Trump is looking into how to rescind the security clearances of John Brennan, James Comey, Jim Clapper, Michael Hayden, Susan Rice and Andrew McCabe, because he believes they have “monetized” their clearances and made “baseless charges” against Trump involving Russia.
All of those officials have been critical of Trump and his administration’s policies.
“The president is exploring these mechanisms to remove security clearances because they have politicized, and in some cases, monetized,” Sarah Sanders said.
They must not have explored too hard yet, because a few of the officials named haven’t had a clearance for months anyhow.
Sanders also said they have made “baseless accusations” about Russia and Trump.
“You can’t accuse the president of ‘treasonous activity’ when you have a top-level security clearance,” she said, bullshittily.
You can, OF COURSE, call it like you see it, when you see him committing treasonous activity with your own lying eyes.
pssst. they probably haven't "looked into it" too closely, since Comey and McCabe haven't had a clearance for months. https://t.co/G4nFPMOo9Y
— Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) July 23, 2018
Sarah Sanders says Trump is looking to rescind clearances of Comey, Clapper, Brennan, McCabe, Rice and Hayden because he believes they have "monetized" them. All of those officials have been critical of Trump and his policies.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) July 23, 2018
"Not that I'm aware of," Sarah Sanders says, when asked if the president has a message for Paul Manafort.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) July 23, 2018
The White House press briefing was supposed to start at 2PM. It started at 2:40. Trump has a White House event at 3PM so the briefing lasted just 15 minutes so reporters could attend the event.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 23, 2018
Andrew McCabe's security clearance was deactivated when he was terminated, according to what we were told was FBI policy. You would think the White House would check with the FBI before trying to throw shiny objects to the press corps… https://t.co/ZOKJDChpeP
— Melissa Schwartz (@MSchwartz3) July 23, 2018
This is good time to recall that former DIA chief Mike Flynn had his clearance when he was screaming "lock her up" at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) July 23, 2018
"I think that's a terrible precedent, and it's a very sad commentary, and it's an abuse of the system." Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reacts to being named among those with their security clearance under review https://t.co/l1WjuM5ESQ pic.twitter.com/7CXhUhyEK2
— CNN International (@cnni) July 23, 2018
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders explains why the President is considering revoking the security clearances of ex-intel chiefs: “They’ve politicized and in some cases actually monetized their public service and their security clearances” https://t.co/JUlF2aT3eM pic.twitter.com/72H7AKBhqA
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 23, 2018