relationship with russia and, frankly, he has zero to show for it. then you have this new interesting twist, which is senator rand paul. he s been in russia during the senate recess. he put out a statement saying he was proud to be delivering a letter from trump to putin, which might lead somebody to believe he s like this emissary. but then the white house deputy press secretary puts out a statement saying at senator paul s request, president trump provided a letter of introduction. in the letter, the president mentioned topics of interest that senator paul wanted to discuss with putin. what do you make of that? yes, it does sound like it s rand paul s request. and we have to keep in mind that he s been an outlier on things like sanctions and policy to russia. he s probably closer to the president then to the rest of the republican party. but it really was odd for him to bring a letter of introduction. believe me, the russians know who rand paul is.
he said, any further information is classified. today the white house actually did impose new sanctions on russia, but not for election meddling. the administration is penalizing the kremlin for using chemical weapons against an ex-spy and his daughter in the uk, a decision that congress had to push the white house to make. meanwhile, republican senator rand paul is in moscow this week, of all places, apparently on his own summer outreach mission to the kremlin. the senator had been one of the few open defenders on capitol hill of president trump s overtures to vladimir putin, the only defender at times. today he wrote this about his visit. quote, i was honored to deliver a letter from president trump to president vladimir putin s administration. the letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas, including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue, and resuming cultural exchanges. putin was not in moscow to meet with the senator personally, we r
they ve had meetings where they discussed paul s trip to russia, trump and him discussing this in the oval office. this of course coming after the helsinki summit. rand paul was one of the few republicans not to criticize the president s handling of that summit. rand paul taking this trip to russia to meet with russian officials and announcing on twitter that he hand delivered this note saying the letter from trump to putin emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas, including counterterrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges. now, i m told that he had gotten that letter before he left from washington to moscow. but after this tweet and after the reports of paul doing this, the white house responded and gave a little different interpretation of exactly what happened said that at senator paul s request, president trump
disagree with him. in this case, it s a very specific group of people. america s top former intelligence chiefs, the people who ran america s intelligence agencies. will the president consider senator paul s suggestion and call for the removal of former director brennan s security clearance? not only is the president looking to take away brennan s security clearance, he s also looking into the clearances of comey, clapper, hayden, rice and mccabe. the president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they ve politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances. let s be clear, it s an unprecedented thing if it happens. no president s ever done it and it s an extraordinary list of people. the former cia director john brennan, the former cia director and nas chief general michael hayden. former fbi director james comey. former director of national intelligence, james clapper. andrew mccabe and the former
strong attempt to the credibility of former cia director john brennan, saying he is, and i quote, monetizing his security clearance and that it should be removed from him. he even called on the president to do this. will the president consider senator paul s suggestion and call for the removal of former director brennan s security clearance? not only is the president looking to take away brennan s security clearance, he is also looking into the yeareclearance comey, clapper, rice, mccabe. he is exploring the mechanisms because they politicized and in some cases monetize their public service and security clearances, making baseless accusations of improper contact with russia or being influenced by russia against the president is extremely inappropriate. the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides