Nunes: Trump Calls To Revoke Security Clearances Not A ‘Good Use Of Time’

Typically an ardent defender of President Donald Trump, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) broke with the President over his attempts to revoke the security clearances of former intelligence community officials who criticize him.

In an interview with The Hill published Thursday, Nunes sympathized with Trump’s predicament, but suggested the revocation efforts might be a waste of time.

“I can understand why the President’s upset because their behavior is nothing short of being bizarre. However, I’m not sure it’s a good use of time to have this fight,” he told Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

Earlier this week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Trump is looking into revoking the security clearances of former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former national security adviser Susan Rice, former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. She claimed each of these Obama-era officials had made baseless political attacks against Trump and were trying to make money off their security clearances. 

Nunes didn’t contradict the White House’s rationale for considering revoking the clearances — even though Comey and McCabe were both stripped of theirs when they were fired from the FBI — and suggested that each of the officials were dishonest.

“As you’re aware, many of these actors that he’s talked about were involved in unverified dossiers that they pushed forward out into the public, leaked out into the public, spilled out into the public that was bought and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign, and these were the top intelligence officials and they were supposedly all oblivious to it, and didn’t know about it, which is hard to believe,” he said. “So you can understand why the President’s upset. He thinks they’ve been dishonest with the American people, I think they look extremely dishonest.”