CIA Director SLAMS Trump, Warns Him He’s Endangering National Security (VIDEO, TWEETS)

Donald Trump has spent most of the last week kicking and screaming that the intelligence community is trying to cut the ground out from under him by allowing the “golden showers” dossier to be leaked. Well, outgoing CIA director John Brennan is having none of it. Brennan told Trump–and the nation–that by making such comments, the president-elect may be putting our nation’s security at risk.

What is even more telling is where Brennan delivered his warning–the GOP’s favorite Sunday talk show, “Fox News Sunday.” Watch here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Rb4RpjZ9g

Brennan told host Chris Wallace that he was particularly angered at Trump likening the intelligence community’s behavior in this situation to the Nazi era, both in his Tuesday press conference and on Twitter.

Brennan takes “great umbrage” at any suggestion that he and his colleagues acted like fascists, and added that there was “no basis” for Trump to claim that the intelligence community leaked this information when it was “already available publicly.” Specifically, Brennan noted that the information had been “circulating in the private sector” for some time, though it hadn’t been verified.

Wallace asked Brennan why he and the other intelligence chiefs felt that they had to share this with Trump even though it wasn’t verified. He thought that it may have been better handled at the staffer level. Brennan replied that “anybody who has read the reports out there” would know that they were serious enough that all measures had to be taken to ensure the president-elect knew about them. What Brennan didn’t tell Wallace is that a number of intelligence officials also thought them serious enough to tell their Israeli counterparts to be very careful about sharing information with Trump.

Brennan had another warning for Trump. He wanted the president-elect to understand that the intelligence community was merely trying to do its job by making him aware of “the dangers that are on the world stage”–dangers that he will have to face head-on when he takes office. Brennan added that unless Trump understands this, it could have serious consequences.

“If he doesn’t have confidence in the intelligence community, what signal does that send to our partners and allies, as well as our adversaries? So, I think Mr. Trump has to be very disciplined in terms of what it is that he says publicly. He is going to be, in a few days’ time, the most powerful person in the world in terms of sitting on top of the United States government. And I think he has to recognize that his words do have impact. And they can have very positive impact, or they can be undercutting of our national security.”

Brennan wasn’t just making idle chatter. As we already know, Trump has demonstrated that he can crater a company’s stock with just one tweet.

Brennan also questioned whether Trump has “a full appreciation” for the threat Russia still poses. While he hopes that we improve our relationship with the Kremlin, he reminded Trump that Russia needs to “change their behavior, change their actions.” He believed, as any responsible intelligence chief would, that Trump and Mike Pence need to “understand exactly what it is we know” so they can make “informed decisions.” He was very concerned that Trump didn’t have this in mind when he suggested that he was considering lifting the sanctions President Obama imposed on Russia in December.

Hours later, Trump demonstrated–loudly–that at least for now, he doesn’t intend to heed that warning.

So if a CIA director gives a sober warning to a president-elect about how his words could affect our security, he’s suspected of being a fake news merchant? Yeah, OK.

(featured image courtesy David Lienemann, part of public domain)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.