Entertainment

Joy Behar: Trump Wants To Take Away Brennan’s Security Clearance Because He ‘Is Afraid Of Any Kind Of Criticism’

Katie Jerkovich Entertainment Reporter
Font Size:

Joy Behar said President Donald Trump wants to take away John Brennan’s security clearance because he is “afraid of any kind of criticism.”

The comment came Tuesday during a panel discussion on “The View” after Whoopi Goldberg asked the group if it was appropriate for Trump to “punish people who disagree with him by taking their security clearance.”

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced that Trump was not only “looking to take away [John] Brennan’s security clearance; he is also looking into the clearances of [James] Comey, [James] Clapper, [Michael] Hayden, [Susan] Rice and [Andrew] McCabe. The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances.”

“The main thing is that [Trump] has such a fragile ego and is so frightened of what kind of — you know, [Robert] Mueller and the rest of them — that he is afraid of any kind of criticism, which is really very tacky for a president, to say the least,” Behar explained. “If you can’t take criticism, that is the most difficult position to be in.”

“The thing that really annoys everybody is he’s saying that they’re monetizing, that they’re making money off it,” she added. “Now, does everybody remember when Kellyanne Conway was pushing Ivanka’s shoe line? Does everybody know that when the Secret Service goes to Mar-a-Lago, which is owned by the Trump family, that they get the rooms there and the taxpayers pay for those? That Ivanka and Jared [Kushner] made more than $80 million in outside income in 2017? That she has earned alone — Ivanka — $5 million from her own ventures, including her fashion line?”

Sunny Hostin then interjected and claimed that “it’s unprecedented, the amount of money the Trump family has made.”

Meghan McCain then reminded the ladies that it was John Kelly who “downgraded Jared Kushner’s security clearance. Let’s not forget that.” She also reminded her co-hosts that Trump is “not the only person with the power.”

“The thing about this that’s interesting is when we had James Comey on here; I said to his face I thought he was a political animal,” she added. “That he sounded much more like me — like a political commentator that he did someone who worked in national security. And when Trump is talking about people making money, Brennan has a TV contract. There are people that are making money. But do I think they’re revealing national secrets on television? No. Do I think that everything is innately politicized and that’s how we got to this point? Yes.”

“Well he’s doing it to Brennan because Brennan called him a traitor,” Behar responded.

Sunny Hostin then agreed with Behar that this “administration is very weak in terms of ego, but also they are not “using the vast institutional information that these people have.”

Then Whoopi Goldberg said that she was “not comfortable with vindictiveness” and compared it to being “very dictatorship.”