Breaking with his former Obama administration intelligence community colleague, despite empathy for ex-CIA Director John Brennan's frustrations with President Donald Trump, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Brennan's "rhetoric [has] become an issue."
"John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself," Clapper told CNN's "State of the Union" with host Jake Tapper. "John is sort of like a freight train and he's gonna say what's on his mind."
After rebuking President Trump as "treasonous" and committing "high crimes and misdemeanors" — terms used for impeachment proceedings — Brennan has had his post-administration security clearance stripped this week.
Clapper, too, has been a frequent critic of President Trump, but he could not get behind Brennan's bold and politicized statements against the sitting U.S. president — even if he shares a similar concern about the dangers of President Trump's attacks on the credibility of U.S. intelligence.
"I think that the common denominator among all of us [in the intelligence community] that have been speaking up . . . is genuine concern about the jeopardy and threats to our institutions and values, although we may express that in different ways," Clapper told Tapper. "I think that’s what really what this is about."
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