No, I followed along pretty well. Brennen monetized his title as former director for big bucks. He surrendered his professionalism for a cheap-assed political gig. Instead of inhibiting his free speech, he holds it out for sale and will get more air time and probably a bonus because of this. As far as I am concerned, Brennan has tarnished the stature of his public service. If you think calling him out on that is zealously defending Trump, that’s your problem and I don’t care.
Or, there’s another very real possible reason that Brennan is speaking out.
He knows a helluva lot more about national security than everyone combined on this board. And he’s very concerned about what’s going on with this administration.
The folks that are ringing the alarm the loudest are former intelligence community members. That speaks volumes.
A reminder for those that somehow can justify anything Trump does- this is NOT normal. None of this is normal. And continuing to treat it as normal does all of us a disservice.
I don’t see how folks cannot see that this action is unprecedented- and we’re better than this type of crap. We’re talkig about a career intelligence service member who knows a chit ton more than just about everybody else. If nothing else, his experience should be valued- there will be times where his .02 would be helpful. Whether you ultimately heed it or not.
Oh, and he just threatened many others with the same act. The linkage between all of them? They were directly or indirectly involved with the previous administration and/or the start of the Mueller probe.
It’s like we have Nixon redux in office.
A few facts Relevant to this discussion:
1) there are clearly defined guidelines for removal of a security clearance. None of them have been cited. And during a press briefing, Sanders couldn’t name one of them (I believe there’s around 14 reasons)
2) the initial press release was dated 3 WEEKS AGO. Why is that important? At that time, the “investigation” into Brennan’s activities was merely a week or so old. Not near enough time to yank his clearance. It’s pretty clear that this was timed to deflect/distract attention away from Omarosa’s accusations and the Manafort trial. Trump is a master at doing this- he knows how to shift a narrative.
3) none of the intelligence agency heads knew that this action was about to take place. Including Dan Coats, and several other current official’s offices that confirmed to several reporters that they weren’t advised this was happening. For national security reasons, it’s a very good idea to include these folks in the discussions- remember, Brennan served under pub and dem administrations, and was the point person on the Bin Laden mission that ultimately brought him to justice.
In short, this was Done in a way that was way outside the “normal” process. It was handled similar to the first “Muslim ban”, that threw our airports into chaos. And similar to the removing children from their parents. Trump seems to think that if he wants something, he can just do it without going through regular channels. He can- but it has really bad consequences.
4) this has never been done before. The benefit of these clearances are for the country- not for Mr. Brennan.
5) several other “enemies of the administration” were cited as being subject to this same action- including a current member of the FBI. There’s no way to NOT see that as an attempt at the chilling of Free speech.
Most importantly, perhaps...
6) Trump have an interview to the Washington post. Similar to when he fired Comey, he outright claimed that Brennan’s clearance was revoked because of the “Russia witch hunt”. He is remarkably transparent at times, and he just gave away the real reason this happened. Again, just like the Lester Holt interview.
You may be able to try to explain away a few of these points. But they are all facts, and taken together, paint a very clear reason why this happened. It was simply retaliation for the ongoing Russian investigation (performed by Mueller and his team right now).
Again, this is NOT normal. And attempting to explain it as such isn’t based on FACTS. it’s based on a desire to defend anything the president does.