President Trump lauded members of the CIA as the “most elite intelligence professionals on the planet” on Monday at the swearing-in ceremony of the agency’s new director even as he tweeted just hours earlier that a previous chief “disgraced” America’s spy community.
“It is a true honor to stand here before the most elite intelligence professionals on the planet Earth — nobody even close,” Trump said at the CIA ceremony to install Gina Haspel as the new director. “You face down our enemies, you protect our families, you stand and watch over our great nation. You don’t do it for fame or fortune, or glory, you do it for your country. America is forever grateful.”
In a series of tweets earlier Monday, Trump quoted Don Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and Fox News commentator, who said former CIA Director John Brennan has “disgraced” himself and damaged Americans’ trust in the US intelligence community.
“John Brennan is panicking. He has disgraced himself, he has disgraced the Country, he has disgraced the entire Intelligence Community. He is the one man who is largely responsible for the destruction of American’s faith in the Intelligence Community and in some people at the top of the FBI,” Trump posted a tweet that included Bongino’s comments made on “Fox & Friends.”
The president has been feuding with the US intelligence community — especially the FBI — for launching an investigation into his 2016 campaign to determine whether any campaign associates were in contact with the Russians.
In a tweet on Sunday, Trump demanded the Department of Justice investigate whether the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes” and whether it was ordered by the Obama administration.
Brennan, who headed up the CIA from 2013 to 2017, responded to Trump’s tweet by calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to intervene.
“If Mr. Trump continues along this disastrous path, you will bear major responsibility for the harm done to our democracy,” Brennan wrote on Sunday. “You do a great disservice to our Nation & the Republican Party if you continue to enable Mr. Trump’s self-serving actions.”
Haspel was confirmed last week by a 54-45 vote in the Senate, making her the first woman to head the spy agency.
During her address, Haspel said the CIA has been a “calling” and thanked the role models and mentors in the agency for paving her way.
“I would be remiss if I did not also note the tremendous pride I take in being the first woman to serve as director. I would not be standing before you today if not for the remarkable courage & dedication displayed by generations of OSS and [CIA] women,” she said to rousing applause.
Most Democrats and some Republicans — including Sens. John McCain and Rand Paul — opposed her nomination because of her involvement in highly controversial torture practices after 9/11.
Haspel, who spent 33 years at the CIA — 32 of them as an undercover agent — was nominated by Trump in March to replace Mike Pompeo, who went on to become the secretary of state.
