President Donald Trump received support for his decision to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance from Rand Paul and U.S. Army Brigadier Gen. Anthony Tata (Ret.).
In an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Thursday, Tata said Trump was justified in revoking Brennan’s security clearance, describing him as a “clear and present danger to this nation.”
Tata refers to the former CIA director as “Communist John Brennan” because he once voted for a Communist Party candidate.
“He supports the overthrow of this particular president and he needed to have his access to information revoked … He spied on American citizens and lied in front of Congress about that spying,” Tata said.
“Question 29 on the security clearance form says, ‘Have you ever supported overthrowing the U.S. government?’ All you gotta do is look at Brennan’s tweets and he supports the removal of this president and right there that’s enough to get rid of his clearance.” Tata said.
“I made my feelings known that … I think most Americans look at our national intelligence experts as being above politics. Mr. Brennan has demonstrated that that’s not the case. He’s been totally political. I think I called him a butt-head and I meant it. I think he’s given the national intelligence community a bad name,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana who is a supporter of the president in this case.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has also praised Trump over his move to revoke Brennan’s security clearance.
“I applaud President Trump for his revoking of John Brennan’s security clearance. I urged the President to do this. I filibustered Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA in 2013 and his behavior in government, and out of it demonstrates why he should not be allowed near classified information. He participated in a shredding of constitutional rights, lied to Congress, and has been monetizing and making partisan political use of his clearance since his departure,” Paul said in a statement released Wednesday.