The Nazis started their purges with an enemies list. They killed a lot of people on the Operation Hummingbird list, an event which became known as The Night Of Long Knives and they also had Operation Sea Lion, which was a list of prominent British residents to be arrested when Hitler took over Britain. Today Donald Trump issued his own enemies list, via his Minister of Propaganda, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who announced that the White House was “exploring” taking away White House security clearances from former government officials who openly critical of Trump. This is full on fascism at it’s finest and the push back is equally fine.
Press Sec. Sanders: "Not only is the president looking to take away Brennan's security clearance, he's also looking into the security clearances of Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Rice, and McCabe…because they've politicized and in some cases monetized their public service." pic.twitter.com/X24GmU06ci
— ABC News (@ABC) July 23, 2018
Trump just sent out his spokeswoman to say that people he knows will be witnesses against him in a federal case are going to be punished at his direction for things they have said about him that would be relevant to and possibly part of their testimony. This is a legal obscenity.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 23, 2018
It's Witness Intimidation — straight up #tRUmpCrimeSyndicate
— MLCrassus (@Defendario) July 23, 2018
Steve Schmidt on MSNBC, “This is the move of an autocrat. We don’t strip security clearances for political reasons for members of the opposition party…This is just a culmination of his increasingly erratic behavior and of course it occurs just a week after he stood up next to the Russian president and took the Russian president’s side in a dispute with intelligence agencies.”
Politicizing security clearances to retaliate against former national security officials who criticize the President would set a terrible new precedent.
An enemies list is ugly, undemocratic and un-American. Is there no length Trump will not go to stifle opposition? Wake up GOP.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 23, 2018
The excuse that some former officials might be leveraging their prior security clearances into speaking fees or otherwise “monetizing” the expertise they gained while working in the government is transparently phony. Coming from this president, the idea is especially ironic.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 23, 2018
He is doing everything that previous dictator have done. His relationship with #Russia is part of the training that he is receiving. Is time to impeach trump.
— Edward (@ESotomayorM) July 23, 2018
Looks like he’s following the “dictator’s playbook” .. attack and suppress anyone opposing his views..
— Swati Bharati (@SwatiBharati) July 23, 2018
Well, now we know what he discussed with Vladimir Putin behind closed doors. If Putin put him up to this, he undoubtedly did so in order to test the strength of our democratic system to see more exactly how to attack it in the near future.
This salvo is useless. The bombs are bouncing off of the targets. McCabe and Comey don’t have clearances, Hayden doesn’t care, and Susan Rice probably wouldn’t be caught dead in the place. Of all of Trump’s pyrotechnic stink bombs, and there have been many, this one is a dud.
