On Thursday, Retired Rear Admiral William H. McRaven, the Navy SEAL who commanded the raid in the field on the Pakistani compound of Osama bin Laden in 2011, dared President Trump in an open letter published in the Washington Post, “revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President,” McRaven writes, telling the President he would “consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.”
McRaven goes on to write, “Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs,” saying that “Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities” and that through Trump’s actions he has “embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage…,” telling the president that he was “sadly mistaken” if he thought his “McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of critisms.”
On Wednesday TNB informed readers about the news that President Trump revoked the security clearance of ex-CIA director John Brennan via a statement read by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the daily White House briefing.
Sanders read the President’s statement that cited a litany of reasons from “erratic conduct and behavior” saying Brennan “pushed the limits of any professional courtesy” while calling in to question his “objectivity and credibility.” Even going so far as to imply Brennan had monetized his status to “transition into highly political positions” and was spreading “increasingly frenzied commentary.”
Sanders then went on to list more names whose security clearance the president is considering revoking.
Brennan, who has been an outspoken critic of this administration, the Dallas News reports Brennan said in response to the news his clearance was revoked “the president was making a “desperate” move to “protect himself,” and described Trump’s claims that there has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as “hogwash.” Brennan also offered this same opinion in an op-ed for the New York Times on Thursday.
McRaven, the Dallas News goes on to say, is a Texan who graduated from the University of Texas with a BA in journalism and was a reporter for UT’s college newspaper. He retired from the Navy in 2014, after serving 37 years, then went on to be hired as chancellor of the University of Texas System, and like Brennan, has also been an outspoken critic of this administration, especially with regards to what he considers this president’s attacks on a free press.
In a UT speech McRaven gave, the Washington Post reports in February 2017, McRaven “slammed President Trump’s characterization of the media as “the enemy of the American people…” adding that, “This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime,” going on to add that never in all his 60 years “has the government openly challenged the idea of a free press.”
McRaven was also a critic when then candidate Trump made it a campaign promise to “restrict travel by Muslims to the United States” and then questioned if then President Trump was “making the right calls in civil war-torn Syria.”
McRaven resigned as UT’s chancellor “due to health concerns” earlier this year, the Dallas News says, but “is reportedly joining UT’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs as professor of national security.”