Banana Republicans

From THE HILL:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) compared President Trump‘s consideration of a plan to strip half a dozen former national security and intelligence officials of their security clearances to “a banana republic kind of thing.”

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The Tennessee senator went on to say that targeting “political enemies” was “the kind of thing that happens in Venezuela.”

“I can’t even believe that somebody at the White House thought up something like this,” Corker said on MSNBC.

…snip…

The comments from Corker, a frequent Trump critic, came a day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed to reporters at a press briefing that Trump was considering stripping six former officials of their security clearances, alleging that they had “politicized, and in some cases, monetized their public service.”

Among the officials named by Sanders were former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and former national security adviser Susan Rice.

All the officials named in the Monday briefing served during Obama’s administration and all have spoken critically of Trump, particularly over the president’s posture towards the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In related news, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions addressed the Twitler Youth today. From POLITICO:

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions briefly joined in during a “Lock her up!” chant while delivering a speech to a group of conservative high school students on Tuesday, marking the latest example of President Donald Trump and his aides making aggressive gestures toward their political rivals.

Sessions was speaking about freedom of speech on college campuses when the chant broke out at the Turning Point USA High School Leadership Summit at George Washington University.

“I like this bunch, I gotta tell ya, you’re not going to be backing down. Go get ‘em! Go get em’!” Sessions said, when the audience started yelling “Lock her up!” — a staple of Trump’s political rallies that refers to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

…snip…

The remarkable comment by an attorney general of the United States follows other moves by Trump and his aides that have alarmed not only Trump critics but other fellow Republicans.

Trump set off a firestorm by expressing openness to handing over former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul to Moscow for an interrogation if special counsel Robert Mueller’s team was allowed to question a dozen Russian intelligence agents indicted earlier this month.

When Putin floated the idea, Trump called it an “incredible offer” during a news conference last week.

To the tune of the Chiquita Banana Jingle:

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