James Clapper Reacts to Trump’s Security Clearance Threat: An ‘Infringement of Our Right to Speak’
In light of the news that President Trump is revoking John Brennan‘s security clearance, former DNI chief James Clapper is calling this a White House ploy to suppress the First Amendment rights of their critics.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on Wednesday that Trump is pulling the former CIA director’s clearance over his “erratic conduct and behavior” since leaving his position and becoming a major critic of the president. Sanders also said Clapper was one of the people on a list of intelligence figures and critics Trump might deprive of their clearance as well.
When CNN’s Brooke Baldwin asked Clapper about this, he accused Trump of “making up the criteria” to move against Brennan, and he also hit back at the factual inaccuracies in the statement from Sanders. This eventually segued in a moment when Clapper accused Trump of trying to infringe on the freedom of speech for his critics.
“Will the republic stand or fall on whether John retains his access to classified information, or mine or any others that were named? Of course not,” Clapper said. “The larger issue here, to me, has been ininfringement on First Amendment rights. And I think people ought to think seriously about that…Infringement of our right to speak, and apparently, the appropriateness of being critical of this president.”
Clapper also said the move was “unprecedented” if the reports are true and Trump never consulted Dan Coats about the revocation before having Sanders announce it. He also promised “I don’t plan to stop speaking” about the Trump Administration, even if it seems he’s on a list of White House targets.
Watch above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
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