A 'loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted': Trump lashes out at John Brennan on Twitter
- President Trump questioned John Brennan's record as CIA director in a tweet Saturday morning.
- He also called Brennan a "loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets of our country."
- Trump's tweet came three days after he revoked Brennan's security clearance, saying the former CIA director was "leveraging" it to make "unfounded and outrageous" claims on television.
President Trump lashed out at former CIA director John Brennan on Twitter Saturday morning, three days after revoking his security clearance.
The president questioned Brennan's record as CIA director and called him a "political hack."
"Has anyone looked at the mistakes that John Brennan made while serving as CIA Director?" Trump tweeted.
"He will go down as easily the WORST in history & since getting out, he has become nothing less than a loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country!' Trump added.
Brennan has worked under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
He served as CIA director from March 2013 to January 2017, and was appointed to the position by President Barack Obama. Before that, he served as Obama's homeland security advisor. Prior to that, former president George W. Bush appointed Brennan as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Brennan's tenure at the CIA certainly wasn't without scandal. In 2014, he faced backlash after it was revealed that CIA employees had improperly accessed computer servers of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
That same year he also came under fire when he said tht the CIA's controversial interrogation techniques had in fact yielded some useful information.
Trump's decision to revoke Brennan's security clearance on Wednesday was heavily criticized, with many saying Trump was wielding his power to silence his critics.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Brennan's security clearance was being revoked because 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 television about this information."
Sanders also said the president was considering revoking the security clearances of several other former officials, all of them critics of the president. Those with their security clearances under review are former FBI Director James Comey; James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence; former CIA Director Michael Hayden; former national security advisor Susan Rice; and Andrew McCabe, Trump's FBI director until he was fired in March.
In total, 75 former intelligence officials have stepped forward to criticize Trump's decision, saying that they should be able to speak freely about national security issues.