carl, i ve got to ask you. the washington post is reporting tonight that the white house has drafted more clearance cancellations. i m going to read from that. trump wants to sign most, if not all of them, said one senior white house official who indicated that communications aides including press secretary sarah huckabee sanders and bill shine the newly named deputy chief of staff have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles. juliette touched on this a little bit. they re going to be pulling these clearances and putting this information out when they need to distract from something. that s blatantly political. of course it s blatantly political. but we have to go to the very basis of what trump is doing here. and that is he is as part of a cover-up, is trying to undermine and bury the mueller investigation at every turn. and that includes through all this diversionary action. i ve talked to people in the white house, lawyers in
this week he revoked brennan s security clearance calling him a hack who can t be trusted to keep secrets. it prompts more than 70 intelligence officials, including top former cia directors, to come together with a statement warning the president the country will be weakened if there is a political litmus test applied before seasoned experts. brennan himself firing back at the president, calling him power hungry. he is drunk on power. he really is. i think he is abusing the powers of that office. i think right now, this country is in a crisis in terms of what mr. trump has done and is liable to do. trump may not be stopping with brennan. he has ordered white house to draft more clearance cancellations of current and former officials, all of whom have been publically critical of the president or tied to the russia investigation in some way. cnn s sarah westwood is in new
and trump may not be stopping with brennan. he s ordered the white house to draft more clearance cancellations of current and former officials. all of whom have been publicly critical of the president or tied to the russia investigation in some way. cnn s sarah westwood is in new jersey where the president is staying this weekend. sarah, what s happening there? well, president trump still going after the former cia director whose security clearance he revoked earlier this week in what critics have described as an act of retaliation for john brennan s criticism of the white house. trump slamming brennan s record as cia director in a tweet this morning, doubling down on his decision to target brennan. and while brennan s tenure as cia director is not without its controversies, dozens of former intelligence officials are now banding together to defend brennan. arguing trump potentially has set a dangerous precedent by using politics to decide who gets to keep their security
president that the country will be weakened if there is a political litmus test applied before seasoned experts are allowed to share their views. brennan unloaded on the president again last night. he s drunk on power. he really is. and i think he s abusing the powers of that office. i think right now this country is in a crisis in terms of what mr. trump has done and is liable to do. and trump may not be stopping with brennan. he has ordered the white house to draft more clearance cancellations of current and former officials, all of whom have been publicly critical of the president or tied to the russia investigation in some way. cnn s ryan nobles is in new jersey where the president is staying and tweeting this weekend. so, ryan, what more can you tell us? reporter: well, fred, it seems pretty clear that despite the criticism that the president has received by this decision and then threatened to revoke the security clearances of other