Key Democratic Senator Calls Out Trump For Creating A ‘Nixonian Enemies List’

Ranking Senate Intelligence Committee member Mark Warner called out Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying the move by the White House to revoke former CIA director John Brennan’s security clearance is a sign that the president has a “Nixonian enemies list.”

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“This was in effect almost an enemies list, a Nixonian enemies list,” the Virginia senator said, according to The Hill. “Revoking Brennan, threatening to revoke a series of others, trying to limit these Americans’ First Amendment rights — it’s unprecedented.”

Warner’s tough pushback came hours after Trump announced he was terminating Brennan’s security clearance. In Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ explanation for the disturbing move, she didn’t even deny that it was all because the president couldn’t handle the truths being told by the former CIA director.

“Mr. Brennan’s lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets and facilities,” she said.

In other words: Brennan was exercising his free speech, and Trump didn’t like it.

Brennan is the first in a series of other former intelligence officials that Trump plans to target if they continue to publicly criticise him.

Trump can’t handle criticism

Before Donald Trump was president, all he could do when he faced tough criticism was whine about it on Twitter like the man-child that he is. He certainly hasn’t stopped doing that.

But now that he is president, he is increasingly using his power to silence those who disagree with him. Wednesday’s move to revoke the security clearance of an intelligence community veteran – a man central to the operation that killed Osama bin Laden – is the latest demonstration of that.

The fact that Mark Warner is warning the country that Trump is using Nixon-style tactics is telling – and we should all take it seriously. After all, Warner is not some hair-on-fire lefty who uses hyperbole to describe every move Trump makes.

Ultimately, this is the behavior of an authoritarian, not a president. Donald Trump has become a clear and present danger to the United States.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.