President Trump on Tuesday ripped “the very tired” New Yorker for reporting that he was considering denying former President Obama access to intelligence briefings.
“Fake News, of which there is soooo much (this time the very tired New Yorker) falsely reported that I was going to take the extraordinary step of denying Intelligence Briefings to President Obama. Never discussed or thought of!” the president tweeted.
Fake News, of which there is soooo much (this time the very tired New Yorker) falsely reported that I was going to take the extraordinary step of denying Intelligence Briefings to President Obama. Never discussed or thought of!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2018
The New Yorker on Monday published a report about former CIA Director John Brennan’s decision to confront President Trump, discussing in one paragraph how Trump’s advisers urged him to revoke the security clearances of former Obama administration officials because they regarded them as “powerful enemies who threatened the new President’s rule.”
The magazine also went on to report that the president even considered revoking the security clearance of Obama himself.
At the time, some of Trump’s most fervent supporters in the White House saw former Obama Administration officials as powerful enemies who threatened the new President’s rule, and they agitated for punishing them by revoking their security clearances. The idea was rebuffed by the national-security adviser at the time, H. R. McMaster, who signed a memo extending the clearances of his predecessors at the N.S.C., Republicans and Democrats alike. As Trump stepped up his public and private attacks on Obama, some of the new President’s advisers thought that he should take the extraordinary step of denying Obama himself access to intelligence briefings that were made available to all of his living predecessors. Trump was told about the importance of keeping former Presidents, who frequently met with foreign leaders, informed. (The New Yorker)
The New Yorkers said it was only due to McMaster’s counsel that he decided against it.
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