We’ve detailed how the pro-Trump stenographers at CNSNews.com rushed to do damage control for President Trump following the infamous press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki — which included playing down the suggestion from former CIA director John Brennan that Trump committed “treason” in his obsequiousness to Putin, as well as CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey complaining that “Former CIA Director John Brennan never accused his old boss Barack Obama of ‘treasonous’ behavior” when Obama told then-leader Dmitry Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate with Russia after the 2012 election.
Now CNS is doing the Trump White House’s bidding in attacking Brennan for making the suggestion.
On July 19, CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman quoted Republican Sen. Rand Paul claiming that Brennan “started his illustrious career by voting for the Communist Party.” That led to a harangue from Chapman claiming that the Communist Party in the U.S. “was always loyal to the USSR, a totalitarian regime responsible for more than 25 million deaths.” But Paul is misleading; as we’ve noted, Brennan voted for the communist as a protest vote while a college student, not while a CIA employee, and he disclosed the vote during the CIA hiring process.
An article the same day from Gavi Greenspan favorably quoted Republican Rep. John Kennedy trashing Brennan as “lost in a sea of dumb.” Greenspan also noted apropos of noting that Brennan voted for a communist but omitted the fact it was a protest vote and done before he joined the CIA.
A July 20 article by Susan Jones quoted Paul again, this time saying it’s “alarming” that Brennan still has a security clearance even though he, in Jones’ words, “attacks the president on Twitter and now works as an analyst for MSNBC.” Jones also included screenshots of Brennan’s tweets to show “the general flavor of his recent tweets.”
CNS then joined the bandwagon to get Brennan’s security clearance pulled for criticizing Trump. Dutiful Sarah Sanders stenographer Melanie Arter cheerfully highlighted how the White House is considering pulling the security clearances of Brennan and other former intelligence officials because they purportedly “politicized” and “monetized” those clearances, and intern Max Augros was sent out to ask House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer: “Former CIA Director John Brennan has publicly declared the sitting president ‘treasonous.’ Should he be permitted to keep his security clearance?” Another intern, Emilie Cochran, had to write an article quoting Paul Ryan as saying that Trump is “trolling” people by calling for those security clearances to be pulled.
We presume the Trump White House couldn’t be prouder of CNS for regurgitating its anti-Brennan talking points so faithfully.