MSNBC host Chris Hayes argued, during the opening monologue of his show Monday, that anyone who trusts President Donald Trump would end up looking like a fool.
“You can never take anything uttered by the Trump administration at face value, and anyone who does ends up looking look a fool later on,” Hayes asserted, talking about the accusation that Trump’s administration overruled 25 cases of rejected security clearances. (RELATED: Jason Chaffetz Says Republicans Should Target Adam Schiff’s Security Clearance)
Because they lie about just about everything, and we saw yet another example of that today thanks to Democrats’ first big push into the White House security clearance process. House oversight chairman Elijah Cummings revealed today that a whistleblower told the committee it wasn’t just Jared and Ivanka who had their security clearance denials overruled, there were, in fact, dozens of these cases.
A memo released today says, according to the whistleblower, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use and criminal conduct. The highest-profile people that we know have benefitted from this are senior White House officials Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump and it’s obvious this was a special favor, at least in part due to nepotism. But remember, and this is what’s important here, they lied about this through their teeth, okay?
White House security advisor Tricia Newbold recently came forward to the House Oversight and Reform Committee that officials in the Trump administration quietly reversed decisions she made when she rejected 25 security clearances of staff. Jared Kushner was allegedly one of the clearances Newbold rejected, according to the Washington Post.
The ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, issued a statement that poked holes in Newbold’s testimony. “Ms. Newbold provided testimony that the Democrats are misusing to manufacture a misleading narrative that the Trump White House is reckless with our national security,” Jordan wrote, adding that,
The Democrats are inclined to use some information from the transcribed interview to embarrass senior White House officials. Ms. Newbold’s testimony discussed two officials with specificity, who the Democrats labeled as “Senior White House Official 1” and “Senior White House Official 2.” In reality, however, Ms. Newbold provided little direct knowledge about the reasons for why Senior White House Official 1’s and Senior White House Official 2’s security clearances were granted over her recommendations. Her testimony focused on a series of personnel and workplace complaints that suggest she is unhappy and dissatisfied in her office.