"This is, unfortunately, a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicization of the intelligence community, of the national security process, and quite frankly, I'm really shocked that individuals who are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility, their decency . . . on something that clearly is just politically based."
Wow! Who would ever expect CNN to air such a stunning denunciation of the actions of John Brennan and James Comey in fostering the fake story of Trump's supposed Russian collusion during the 2016 campaign?
Oh, wait. That wasn't a denunciation of Brennan and Comey. The quote was by Brennan himself, denouncing the Trump administration for investigating him and Comey! Apparently it's not politicized when they do it.
CNN This Morning aired it on Thursday's show. And host Audie Cornish assembled a panel exclusively composed of people joining Brennan -- and Cornish herself -- in criticizing the Justice Department's investigation.
First up was Sara Fischer. She's the CNN media analyst we caught last month claiming that it might have been "folks on the right" who destroyed stores in the post-George Floyd riots.
So you know where Fischer was coming from, and sure enough, she claimed that by investigating the allegations against Brennan and Comey, the Trump administration is "stooping" to a "wild level."
Commenting on the Brennan quote above, Fischer said:
"I think that Brennan's comments echo what a lot of people are saying."
Hilarious! Yes, Brennan's comments do indeed "echo what a lot of people are saying" -- if you reside in the liberal media/Democrat echo chamber!!
Cornish wasn't just a disinterested moderator of the discussion. With a "yeah," she agreed with Fischer's claim that the investigation of Brennan and Comey is a waste of the government's "time, energy, and resources."
And Cornish suggested to ex-GOP Rep. Charlie Dent (who endorsed Biden in 2020) that, rather than being a "big thing," the goal of the investigation is "really just creating an irritant, trying to make the lives of those people more difficult." Dent said these probes are worse than an irritant, they're costly and "very traumatizing." Former Biden comms person Meghan Hays mourned the "reputational damage" that would result. CNN wasn't in the habit of sympathizing when the Russia probe "traumatized" and damaged reputations in the other direction.
Cornish also suggested "It is also something to talk about that's not Jeffrey Epstein or some of these other things that these very departments, like FBI in particular, have struggled with and sort of fallen on their faces on."
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
7/10/25
6:32 am EDTAUDIE CORNISH: So, the investigators are now under investigation. The FBI is probing former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey. A source briefed on the matter tells CNN Comey and Brennan are being looked at for allegedly making false statements to Congress in a 2016 Russia election interference probe. And it comes after a referral by the current CIA director.
. . .
Now, John Brennan says he had no idea he was under criminal investigation until the reports came out.
JOHN BRENNAN [speaking with Nicolle Wallace]: And I think this is, unfortunately, a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicization of the intelligence community, of the national security process, and quite frankly, I'm really shocked that individuals who are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility, their decency, to continue to do Donald Trump's bidding on something that clearly is just politically based.
CORNISH: OK, the group chat is back. I wanted to talk about this because, again, specific targeting of people, specifically for their relationship to Trump's kind of legal issues in the past.
Sarah, what do you hear in the way Brennan responded?
SARA FISCHER: I mean, the 2016 date is just absolutely wild to me, because Donald Trump had four years to investigate in his first term for anything that he alleges happened in 2016. We're now in 2025, and we're still looking at comments made to Congress, which are public? That's a pretty wild level that you're stooping to at that point.
I think that Brennan's comments echo what a lot of people are saying, which is, is this how we're going to be utilizing our federal government, our investigators' time, energy, and resources?
CORNISH: Yeah.
FISCHER: It feels like a huge waste.
CORNISH: Your answer kind of sounded like Trump's answer on Epstein, where he was like, why are we still talking about this?
Meanwhile, there's a file cabinet somewhere being opened on Brennan and Comey.
. . .
CHARLIE DENT: It's clear to me that people are being targeted.
. . .
CORNISH: Do you think these investigations really become a big thing, or is it really just creating an irritant, trying to make the lives of those people more difficult?
DENT: It's it's, well, it's more than an irritant if you're being investigated. I mean, this is going to cost these people a lot of money and time and aggravation and there might be might be hostile and malicious prosecutions, but it's still going to be very traumatizing, I suspect.
MEGHAN HAYS: The reputational damage to these people that happens every time that this gets talked about in the media and every time that Trump says something, also the financial damage that this does to people, this is ruining for people financially. It's the same thing going on with the Comey investigation.
People have to pay for their own lawyers, and it's tens of thousands of dollars a month that these people are having to pay, and they are public servants. Yes, they have been out now, and they probably are sitting on boards making more money than we probably all make together, but I don't think people understand the impact that these, like, very flippant remarks from Trump and his team, what it causes to people at a human level.
FISCHER: Yeah, just want to add to that. Do you remember in 2016, all we were talking about was Hillary Clinton's emails? And that still was a thing in 2020. I think at this point, we're no longer talking about Hillary Clinton's emails. That's kind of what this feels like to me. Like we're grabbing onto something old so that we can have a message that's in the media to remind people of who the foe is, when in reality, this is really a dated complaint that doesn't really have much.
I mean, we'll see what these investigations turn up, but to my understanding, it feels less based in solid fact and more based in politicization.
CORNISH: It is also something to talk about that's not Jeffrey Epstein or some of these other things that these very departments, like FBI in particular, have struggled with and sort of fallen on their faces on.
