White House counselor Kellyanne Conway blasted former CIA Director John Brennan on Fox News on Friday morning over his reaction to having his security clearance revoked, asking “Why is he screaming about it on a lower-rated cable network?” in reference to MSNBC.
On Wednesday, Trump, in a statement read by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, accused Brennan of exploiting his status as a top former government official to make “unfounded and outrageous” charges about him.
In addition to Brennan, the administration said it is reviewing the security clearances of multiple other Obama-era officials.
{mosads}”Remember, you keep those security clearances as a professional courtesy or to keep an unbroken line for the next successor administration if you can be helpful with respect to national security,” Conway said on “Fox & Friends,” a morning program Trump regularly praises. “He has proven neither. In fact, he is a cable news pundit now.”
The former GOP pollster said if Brennan wanted to accuse the Trump campaign of conspiracy with Russia, he should have brought that information to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) during his congressional testimony.
“And he is not just critical of the administration … Chairman Burr made very clear that if John Brennan felt that he had information about collusion in the campaign, which, of course, he doesn’t, why doesn’t he make it a part of his testimony and part of what he has submitted to the committee?” she asked.
“Why is he doing it in a The New York Times op-ed? Why is he screaming about it on a lower-rated cable network? Because that’s where he is making his money now. So, I know it says ‘former CIA director,’ but what is he doing currently to merit that security clearance?”
Brennan has been vocal in his objections since losing his security clearance, including multiple appearances on MSNBC, where he serves as a contributor, and in an op-ed in The New York Times on Thursday, where he called Trump’s claims of no collusion with Russia during the 2016 election “hogwash.”
“Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets and facilities, the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos,” Trump said in the statement read by Sanders on Wednesday.
Brennan signed on as a contributor with MSNBC and NBC News in February.
The network is currently second to Fox News in the cable news race but has enjoyed all-time ratings highs since Trump took office.