Ex-GOP House Intelligence Committee head Mike Rogers called it "petty" for President Donald Trump to be considering revocation of security clearances for several former intelligence and national security officials who have criticized him — but chastised former CIA Director John Brennan for going "off the reservation" with his rebuke.
In remarks on CNN's "The Lead," the ex-Michigan lawmaker firmly rejected the idea of ending what have been customary security clearances.
"Petty and below the stature of the office of the president of the United States even to weigh into this," Rogers declared of Trump's consideration to yank security clearances for former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Brennan.
"It's with courtesy and custom they keep the clearances for the purpose of trying to gather up quarterly or biannually, to be able to express in an open way very classified information that may be perplexing the director of fill-in-the-blank agency," Rogers said, adding: "To me that makes sense to continue to do that."
But Rogers said Brennan's remarks were over-the-top.
"It is also not customary for the former CIA director to be off the reservation where he is either," Rogers said of Brennan.
"If you recall, I was saying [ex-FBI Director James] Comey couldn't be tweeting right after he was dismissed, either," Rogers said. "I thought that was inappropriate. This feeds into that kind kind of what-in-God's-green-Earth-is going-on kind of a narrative that we're dealing with now."
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