former colleagues of brennen are jumping to his defense. you heard john reference this letter. first of all, there's navy retired admiral william mccraven, who oversaw the bin laden raid and was in special operations. he wrote this "the washington post" calling brennen one of the finest public servants i've ever known. he goes onto say, i would consider it an honor -- this is talking to the president -- if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so i can add my fame name to the list of men women who have spoken up against your presidency. and from the former top officials, just about all the big names you know we've covered around here that represent both democratic and republican administrations, in it they defend brennen and call the president's action an attempt to stifle free speech. well, here to talk about it all nancy cook is back with us, white house reporter for politico. and we welcome to the broadcast aaron blake for "the washington post." aaron, your colleagues have gone ahead and verified this brennen matter was done without process,

i think he's given the national intelligence community a bad name. >> i think the things john brennenral months about this country has been disgraceful. >> mr. brennen has gone way over the line in my view and i think restricting his clearance, pulling his clearance makes sense to me. >> the fact he's out there every single day acting in a partisan way probably doesn't help his cause. >> he says he's probably going to get bruce or, and you're going to see general clapper, former obama administration officials. if he keeps going are they going to say mr. president, do whatever you want? >> yes, that's exactly what they're going to do. at some point they may say this is concerning or i don't agree wth the president, but we've seen this sort of milk tone with them no matter the president's comments about african-americans, muslims, about women. there the gop wags their finger a bit harder. on this one it's easy for them to say brennen has stepped over the line and the president is well within his authority to strip security clearances. but you list other people who have not been quite so

that's not what we're seeing from john brennen. john brennen has decided to exercise his first amendment rights, speak from things he knows a great deal about in terms of the way national security is handled in the country and give his opinion. normally presidents think of the country as leadership and that their role as being leaders and they can take criticism, and part of it is hearing all sides and not seeing every person who's a critic has someone who needs to be shut down and silenced. >> the president is saying he's giving him a greater platform by pointing him out. >> i worked with john brennen for four years. i don't think he needs the president lambasting him on twitter to make him feel like he has a voice. he used his voice with president obama and he's using it now against president trump. that's a ridiculous thing for president trump to say. it's a pr stunt. >> thank you both. >>> deliberations resume monday in the trial of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. coming up, does the jury's question to the judge p

john brennen was on tv critical of the united states the night before.shed it over the top here? >> i think omarosa and the need to change the subject is what pushed this over the edge. the idea that the document was dated july 26th, almost as if the white house was in some ways waiting to see whether or not there would be something that would bubble up and they would need to talk about this security clearance issue again. it was brought up several weeks ago. they had a long time to be able to say, hey, here is the first person we're going revoke. instead, in the middle of omarosa's frenzied drip, drip, drip of recordings, we now have them explaining, okay, we really need to focus on john brennen and what he's been saying about the president. i think at the end of the day, this white house is really trying to get its legs right now and it's really trying to stop the conversation that we've been having about the president and whether or not he said the "n" word. >> like so many of the threats the president has made, this one was brushed aside by members o

i want to talk about the focus on john brennen. after president trump's press conference with vladimir putin in helsinki brennen unleashed some pretty remarkable criticisms against the president saying it was quote, nothing short of treasonous. take a listen how brennen explained that comment just a couple days ago. >> and i did say it rises to and exceeds the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and there's nothing sort of treasonous. i didn't mean he committed treason, but it was a term i used nothing short of treasonous. >> but you didn't mean he committed treason, though? >> i said it was nothing short of treasonous, yeah. >> we'll get into the president's term in a second, but do you think john brennen's hyperbole is an issue here, the reason why we're having this crisis? >> i think it is. i think john is sort of like a freight train and he's going to say what's on his mind. i think, though, that the common denominator among all of us that have been speaking up, though, is genuine concern about the jeopardy andthets to o thre

he stripped john brennen's security clearance because he ties brennen to the russia investigation. >> look, i say it. i say it again. that whole situation is a rigged witch hunt. it's a totally rigged deal. >> totally rigged witch hunt. minus the word hoax you know what he's talk about. those are trump's favorite words for the russia investigation. maybe he is being honest about his motivations when it comes down to russia. but his press secretary gave a different explanation this week why trump revoked brennen's clearance. >> any benefit that senior officials might glean from consultations with mr. brennen are now outweighed by the risks posed with his erratic conduct and behavior. >> erratic conduct and behavior. maybe president trump realized that excuse wasn't going to work, because if erratic behavior was the standard for security clearance he would lose his, too. remember this tweet, and remember these comments? >> rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself. north korea best not make anymore threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has

if you look at what donald trump says, we know why he fired john brennen, so that's disturbing to the sense donald trump cares so little for our national security and the legacy that men like john brennen carry forward to help those now in power. trump's national security is essentially his own security. but i think it also shows the political nature of what this white house has done with national security, the fact that sarah sanders and the communications team are now in charge of when they're going to decided when the next person loses their security clearance suggests this has nothing to do with the national security staff and everything to do with distractions not only about omarosa but the story you were just talking about with john dean. these are not good stories for the white house in a deep away. >> he already took away his security clearance. why is he continuing to attack him? what is he trying to accomplish? >> i'm glad he did in this case because he's hearkening back. this is not my opinion. our cia was hacking into the computers of the senate i don't ever sight committe

new reporting from "the washington post" that president trump feels emboldened by stripping john brennenoking strong and decisive in his escalating feud with brennen, two aides are telling the post, adding the president shows a visceral disdain for the former cia director when he sees him on television. one official say trump did not focus on his power to remove clearances until this summer. white house officials confirm trump made his decision weeks ago about brennen. senior advisers including press secretary sarah sanders. cia director gina haskell is remaining quiet about the treatment of her predecessor. ci aspokesman tim barrett told the daily beast, cia does not comment on individual security clearances. but 12 former top intel officials, including cia directors webster, tennette, goes, hayden, pa nairus signed a letter that said this. we feel compelled to respond in the wake of the ill considered decision to strip john brennen's security clearance. we all agree that the president's action has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances and everything to d

i've covered john brennen. i've covered jim clapper, these are not men who scare easily, these are not men who cry wolf. the fact that they are out there shouting at the top of their lungs day after day at this point, that this man is a threat to our nation's rule of law, and our democratic institutions is something that we should be focused on. >> well, david, let's talk a little bit more about that, because former cia national security agency director michael hayden told cnn today that the relationship between trump and the intelligence community is dangerously close to being permanently broken. how dangerous is it -- the state of relations between the president and the intelligence community, that it's so bad that it's at risk of being permanently broken? >> one of the dangers here is that there is the fear -- and i haven't heard this directly from many people, because thankfully most of the people still doing national security currently are putting their heads down and doing their job, trying to protect nat

former cia director john brennen fired back on the rachel maddow show. >> i know there's a question.o be looking at in terms of whether or not mr. trump is going to be doing in in order to obstruct justice or to try to silence critics. whatever, but the fact he's using a security clearance of a former cia director as a pawn in his public relations strategy is just so reflective

. >> not walk into a bar but walk onto a set, john brennen, stormy daniels and omarosa, all of them reinvolve around the notion to silence critics through either payoffs or intimidation in the case of brennan. stormy daniels poses a threat, women pose threats so we'll pay them off. omarosa today offered this $180,000 a year job, a no show job by lara trump by saying just don't say anything bad about us. john brennan, you can't pay him off, but you can cut him off and try to threaten and intimidate him. all speaking to a president two apparently is not just thin skinned but is starting to feel as though the various angles of potential vulnerability that something has got to be done and something that's just not tweets at this point. so it's taking more substantive actions. i think that shows you a president that feels -- and omarosa was not in the inner circle of the campaign. but the tape today talking to lara trump shows you something important. which is that she may access to e-mails that may prove nothing for bob ruler. but when you're talking to family members of the trump family, you're

former cia director john brennen fired back on the rachel maddow show. >> i know there's a question. there's a thing lawyers and courts and others are going to be looking at in terms of whether or not mr. trump is going to be doing in in order to obstruct justice or to try to silence critics. whatever, but the fact he's using a security clearance of a former cia director as a pawn in his public relations strategy is just so reflective of somebody who quite frankly don't want to use this term. >> former cia tell analyst at msnbc and republican strategist m matt. let me go to you first and ask you, drunk on power. those are strong words. brennen, who was always low key, more kind of thoughtful guy than a guy that would give statements. drunk on power, would it have brought him to the place where maybe he does obstruct justice. maybe he is trying to silence this. is it all the above or is he doing something that he had the power to use at the time the president doesn't. >> in theory under article two of the constitution, the president is classifier in chief. he decides what is secret, t

john, you're not a blow hard. juligiulian giuliani's taunt comings as dozens more officials added their names to the letter denouncing the president for the revocation of his clearance. joining me now director clapper. should brennen in your opinion take legal action against the president? >> well, that's certainly an option. i know john is considering it, and there are several legal activists who have approached all of us that have been threatened with this, and in john's case, where his clearance has been revoked. and i think that's a decision yet to be made. that's certainly one option. i will say, just to clarify, though, that john's interest is not in attempting to restore his clearance with a suit. his point would be to make a larger point, which is his right to speak and by extension others, which is by the way, if i may just take a moment to amplify something i said yesterday on state of the union, the issue here is not parsing john's rhetoric. the issue is his right to speak, and by extension, other's right to speak. >> the -- i want to read you something that the president tweeted today. he said i hope john brennan brings a lawsuit, it will then be easy to get all of his records, texts, e-mails and docum

trying to silence john brennan with outrageous accusations of lying. accusations that seem to be punishing brennen for his accusations of trump. >> mr. brennen has leveraged his status as a former high ranking official. status to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations wild outbursts on the internet and television while a member of this administration. >> cnn contributor walter shab who resigned from the department of ethics last year. good evening. so much to talk about. president trump spoke to the wall street journal. president trump drew a direct connection between the russia investigation and his security clearance decision. >> i call it the rigged witch hunt, it is a sham, and she's people let it i think it's something that had to be done. doesn't that contradict what we heard from sarah sanders today? >> if does. to say i consulted with my intelligence community, the cia who holds brennen's clearance and they have serious concerns about him continuing to access this information. instead, he gave an interview to the press and said, this is about my hurt feelings, in doing so, t

trying to silence john brennan with outrageous accusations of lying. accusations that seem to be punishing brennenraged his