president. i have decided to revoke the security clearance of john brennan, former director of the central intelligence agency. reporter: sarah sanders claiming he leveraged his position as he criticized the trump administration. mr. brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television about this administration. reporter: but the white house was unable to cite any evidence he misused his intelligence access or monetized proximity to it. asked if this is tied directly to his criticism of trump, sarah sanders said this. not at all. the president has a constitutional responsibility to protect classified information and who has access to it. reporter: brennan responding to the white house bombshell today. if security clearances are now going to become a political tool in the hands of individuals such as mr. tr
because it was announced in the white house briefing room but the two-page statement that the press secretary sent out to a reporters just a short time after that briefing is actually dated july 26th. that is three days after this threat was first made in that briefing room. so it raises a question of if this is a new announcement or if this is something that the president is sitting on. but in either case, the white house is insisting this is not about settling political scores but protecting national security. but, jake, there is one thing in common with all the names mentioned today, they have questioned and criticized the president. president trump taking the extraordinary step today of stripping the security clearance of a fierce critics, former cia director john brennan. he had leveraged his status as a former high ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and
to purge him. and the reason this white house gave is beyond belief. mr. brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television about this administration. mr. brennan s lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation s most closely held secrets and facilities, the very aim of our adversaries, to sow division and chaos. lying? increasingly frenzied commentary? let that settle in, think about that for a minute. this white house is actually attempting to claim, with a straight face, that lying and wild outbursts on tv and twitter are reason to revoke security
official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television about this administration. and here is what sarah sanders asked when asked about the sheer pettiness of this decision. how is this announcement by the president, how can americans not interpret that as a getting back against his critics? and isn t it also an attempt to curtail their freedom of speech by penalizing them for being critical on television? not at all. the president has constitutional responsibility to protect classified information and who has access to it. and that s what he s doing is fulfilling that responsibility in this action. this is actually specific to mr. brennan and the others are currently under review. and if you believe that this decision was made because of the president s duty to protect
look at some of the tweets that are out there and commentary. we are just fighting with each other as a nation. and so today, a hastily scheduled white house press briefing began this way. good afternoon. good afternoon. i d like to begin by reading a statement from the president. as the head of the executive branch and commander in chief, i have a unique constitutional responsibility to protect the nation s classified information, including by controlling access to it. today in fulfilling that responsibility, i have decided to revoke the security clearance of john brennan, former director of the central intelligence agency. mr. brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television about this administration. john brennan learned of the