Trump asks if John Brennan was source of "fake news," but cites no evidence
NEW YORK -- His inauguration days away, President-elect Trump is continuing to lash out at critics in the intelligence community.
In Sunday night tweets, the tough-talking Republican questioned whether the CIA director himself was “the leaker of fake news.”
The extraordinary criticism from the incoming president came hours after outgoing CIA chief John Brennan charged that Mr. Trump lacks a full understanding of the threat Moscow poses to the United States, delivering a public lecture to the president-elect that further highlighted the bitter state of Mr. Trump’s relations with American intelligence agencies.
“Now that he’s going to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as opposed to talking and tweeting, he’s going to have tremendous responsibility to make sure that U.S. and national security interests are protected,” Brennan said on “Fox News Sunday,” warning that the president-elect’s impulsivity could be dangerous.
Mr. Trump’s sustained criticism of the intelligence community is dangerous for more than just morale at the CIA or the FBI, Brennan said: It sends a message to other countries.
“The world is watching now what Trump says and listening very carefully,” he said. “If he doesn’t have confidence in the intelligence community, what signal does that send to our partners and allies as well as our adversaries?”
The president-elect took to Twitter Sunday evening to respond to Brennan, saying over two tweets, “Oh really, couldn’t do much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?”
Brennan’s comments are another indication of just how much the relationship between Mr. Trump and the intelligence community has soured. Since the U.S. intelligence agencies announced in December that they had “high confidence” that Russia was working to influence the 2016 presidential election in his favor, Mr. Trump has expressed skepticism in their findings and publicly denounced the leaks from intelligence sources.