Sarah Sanders: Trump Weighing Revoking Security Clearances for Brennan, Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice, McCabe
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul and Fox’s Tucker Carlson talked about Paul’s belief that former CIA Director John Brennan should have his security clearance revoked. Earlier, Senator Paul said that he would bring it up with President Trump today. In the daily press briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders said that, yes, the President is looking into having Brennan’s clearance revoked. And not just him.
Reporter John Gizzi of Newsmax specified in his question that Paul’s reasoning included the fact that he says Brennan is “monetizing his security clearance,” and asked Sanders if the President agreed.
“Not only is the president looking to take away Brennan’s security clearance, he’s also looking into the clearances of Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice, and McCabe,” Sanders announced.
That’s former DNI James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, to be clear.
“The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance, because they’ve politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances, she continued. “Making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia, or being influenced by Russia against the president is extremely inappropriate, and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence.”
Towards the end of the briefing, Sanders was asked if the administration was considering any other actions against the names she listed, and she said “not that I’m aware of.”
The final question in the briefing was whether former President Obama and former VP Biden might have their security clearances revoked as well.
“I’m not aware of any plans on that at this point,” she said.
Watch above, via CNN.
UPDATE: Andrew McCabe’s spox tweeted a response.
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
[Featured image via screengrab]
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