OPINION:
And you wonder why conservatives in America, particularly the pro-President Donald Trump crowd, believe in the existence of a Deep State.
John Brennan served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 through 2017, a period which brought him under the leadership of Trump’s White House.
He’s supposed to be country first, politics — not.
Check out his Twitter feed. It’s both eye-opening and discomforting.
“I served 6 Presidents, 3 Rs & 3Ds,” he wrote, just this week. “I directly supported Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama. While I didn’t agree with all their policy choices, I admired and respected all of them, as they put country above their personal interests. Not so with you [Mr. Trump], as your self adoration is disgraceful.”
He made that remark in context of retweeting this, from Trump: ” ’Still Rising: Rasmussen Poll Shows Donald Trump Approval Ratings Now at 51 Percent,’ ” alongside a link to a Breitbart article about the same.
As if Obama wasn’t the king of hubris?
Anyhow, that’s not Brennan’s one and only anti-Trump snippet.
When Trump tweeted about Andrew McCabe’s firing, Brennan retweeted and wrote this in response: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America … America will triumph over you.”
Really?
These are the words of a CIA operative, former as he is, to a sitting president of the United States?
Deep State conspiracists unite. And remove those tin foil hats. They’re hardly needed.
Yet wait, there’s more.
When Trump tweeted about the loss of manufacturing that began in this country under George H.W. Bush’s administration, Brennan retweeted and responded: “You show an amazing albeit unsurprising ignorance of how technology, automation, and the attendant evolution of economics and societies have transformed the world. Your simple minded policies — imposition of tariffs — have the potential to seriously damage our future prosperity.”
In other tweets, Brennan attacked Rep. Devin Nunes and other House Republicans for allowing an “absence of moral and ethical leadership in WH” to sway them toward a partisan way of thinking while, in another tweet, praising the “consistent political courage, integrity, and intestinal fortitude” of Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, somehow setting these two Republicans-In-Name-Onlys as the standard for the GOP-run Cabinet and GOP-dominated Congress. Right.
Brennan’s an American citizen and therefore, automatically worthy of the same God-given rights of free speech granted everyone else in this country.
But seriously, is the man not possessed of any mental filters at all?
With all the Deep State talk being slung, all the anti-Trump text messages of the supposed nonpolitical, nonpartisan law enforcement community that have come into the limelight, all the anti-Trump accusations being bandied about, it would seem simple common sense for those perceived as part and parcel of the anti-Trump, Deep State movement to stifle, if only for a bit. If only for a little.
Brennan’s gone a different path, it seems.
And in so doing, he’s only adding fuel to the politically charged fires. That he’s a former CIA guy, with the kind of behind-scenes access and closed-door alliances that average Americans can’t even fathom — that are, in truth, the stuff of plots of high-drama spy novels and government-gone-amok movie intrigues — only make his partisan attacks all the more disturbing.
After all, if Brennan, as a CIA guy, can’t even keep from publicly and openly attacking his own president, what would he or others of his ilk, others of his Deep State brand, do to those with countering, contrasting views who serve in positions of lesser prestige? It’s chilling to wonder.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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