Trump’s midterm war against Mueller, ex-CIA directors and military leaders

President Trump, acting like a man suffering from a frenzied desperation, has launched an all-out war against special counsel Robert Mueller, former CIA directors and retired military leaders by threatening a mass revocation of security clearances.

Trump is facing the potential of a worst-case midterm election debacle that some analysts believe could lead to the mother of blue waves with Democrats gaining as many as 70 seats in the House. Trump is facing a widening and deepening criminal investigation of the Russian attack against America.

{mosads}Recent events suggest he is surrounded by “Deep Throats,” John Deans and secret tapes made by some in his inner circle.

It appears that Trump’s midterm election strategy is to escalate defamatory attacks against Mueller. This may be the most self-destructive strategy in American political history.

Almost every day brings more Trump attacks against Mueller. It is political suicide for Republicans who support or tolerate Trump’s attempt to destroy the investigation of the Russian attack against America in full view of the American electorate weeks before a midterm election.

A Google search for “Trump attacks Mueller” offers a virtual encyclopedia of Trump’s attacks against the special counsel and analysis from fact-checkers debunking his attacks.

Trump has launched an aggressive, hostile attack against retired intelligence and military leaders who have served presidents who were Republican and Democratic, liberal and conservative, by threatening to revoke their security clearances for exercising their right to dissent from his policies.

Former CIA Director John Brennan is a devout patriot who has served our country admirably for decades. After Trump revoked his security clearance and threatened to revoke security clearances of some of the most respected and admired American intelligence and national security leaders over decades, there is a firestorm of protest from an unprecedented galaxy of former CIA directors, retired generals and admirals and national security figures.

A Google search for “national security leaders protest Trump” is a virtual encyclopedia of former CIA directors, retired generals and admirals and national security leaders who served under Presidents Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama. 

These national security leaders are deeply patriotic and nonpartisan. They are outraged by Trump’s actions and have gone public in formal letters to the president and public statements in the media that Trump unconscionably labels “enemies of the people.” 

Monday, Trump threatened to revoke the security clearance of Phil Mudd, the respected CNN counterintelligence analyst who formerly worked for the CIA and the FBI.  This disgraceful threat further escalates Trump’s attack against the national security community and will no doubt escalate the powerful, unprecedented protest from national security leaders.

Late last week, I privately suggested, at a high level and in the right place, that these former CIA directors and retired military leaders request a White House meeting with the president, as a group, to express their protest in person. I discussed this idea in an appearance on CNN last Sunday morning.

It would be unthinkable for Trump, who recently met with the Russian dictator who is attacking America with no Americans present except a translator, to refuse to meet with nationally admired leaders of the American intelligence and military communities who served Republican and Democratic presidents.

For Trump to wage his war against Mueller and intelligence and military leaders over security clearances and related matters as a midterm election ploy is political suicide for the Republican Party. 

A Google search for “Republicans remain silent” dramatizes the danger to Republicans of remaining silent or supporting Trump’s abuses over security clearances and countless other issues.

Kudos to those Republicans who have spoken out in protest in support of the intelligence and military leaders. Shame on those who remain silent or support these abuses.

Stay tuned for more explosive news about Trump insiders who have secretly taped Trump or Trump associates, cooperated at length with Mueller as White House counsel Donald McGahn has done or reached plea bargains with Mueller that may soon be announced.

Historians will look back on the public letter in the Washington Post by retired Admiral William McCraven, who led the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, as a critical inflection point in the constitutional crisis that Trump has created and worsens every day.

Admiral McCraven defied Trump to revoke his security clearance and wrote that Trump’s McCarthy-era tactics in his security clearance scandal embarrasses America in the eyes of our children, humiliates America on the world stage and divides Americans against each other.

Truer words by a more admired leader were never written.

Russia is attacking America. Former CIA directors, retired generals and admirals are standing up for America against the Russian attack. If Trump persists in his midterm war against them and Republicans do not speak out on their behalf, the American people will answer with the mother of all blue waves in November.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.