For a liar, John Brennan sure is sanctimonious.
The former CIA director is on his high horse this week over GOP lawmakers’ treatment of FBI agent Peter Strzok, who appeared Thursday before a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees to answer questions about the anti-Trump texts he fired off to his mistress while investigating both Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Brennan is upset with Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., specifically over the way they pressed Strzok repeatedly to answer whether his opinions, as communicated to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, tainted his role in the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“Vladimir Putin must be very happy, as well as Russian intelligence services because of the discord that’s being concern in the halls of Congress here,” he told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing.
Brennan added, “Unfortunately, I think Chairman Goodlatte and Chairman Gowdy demonstrated they are more interested in protecting Mr. Trump, and preventing the continued investigation from moving forward, and taking these cheap shots at Strzok were just unconscionable.”
The former CIA director was asked what national security implications could be divined from the hearing, to which he responded by claiming Congressional Republicans had reached “a new low.”
“What I saw today was this grandstanding and politicking at the expense of our national security. How it’s going to come to an end, I don’t know. But unfortunately this polarization is being fostered by Mr. Trump in terms of the types of things he says and what he tweets,” Brennan said. “This needs to stop because it is having a damaging impact on our national security.”
[Also read: Peter Strzok denies bias, wins Democratic applause after bashing Trump’s ‘horrible, disgusting behavior’]
He’s not wrong: The hearing was both chaotic and stupid. It elicited very little in terms of actual information, and it worked mostly to make Congress appear even pettier and more superfluous than the public already thinks it is.
I’ll even do Brennan one better and suggest Congress take the additional step of having cameras removed from these stupid, showboating hearings. Make these meetings closed-door. Remove the incentive for lawmakers to turn these gatherings into multi-hour fundraising stunts.
All that said, Brennan, who has a long-standing feud with the truth, is the last person who should be lecturing the public on credibility, trust, and “unconscionable” behavior.
In a better world, a lifetime bureaucrat whose tenure as CIA chief can be best described by the phrases “bald-faced liar” and “drone war enthusiast” would have at least enough shame to crawl into a hole, never to emerge again.
From spying on the U.S. Senate, to lying repeatedly about spying on the U.S. Senate, to supporting torture programs until they were no longer politically expedient, to lying about drone war kills, you’d think the man who formerly headed the CIA would have at least enough self-awareness to realize the absurdity of denouncing others for unethical behavior.
But this is John Brennan. He’s not a standup, ethical person. He just plays one on TV.
