On July 16, 2018 at the Helsinki Summit meeting President Trump and President Putin spent part of the time in a private meeting with only an interpreter present. In the subsequent press conference with respect to the question of whether or not Russia interfered with the 2016 U.S. Presidential election President trump suggested that he was more persuaded by President Putin’s denials than what is own intelligence community was telling him. Shortly afterward in a tweet the former Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, said: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”
The next day the New York Daily News had a banner headline in very large script which said: “Open Treason”.
A month later on August 15th President Trump revoked Mr. Brennan’s had security clearance because, as Mr. Trump informed the Wall Street Journal in an interview, Mr. Brennan participated in the creation of Special Counsel Muller’s investigation into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign in 2016. In other words, this action had nothing to do with national security but was purely a matter of personal vengeance.
On August 17th, Admiral William H. McRaven, one of the most distinguished military leaders in America’s history, former head of the U.S Joint Special Operations Command and the overall leader of the Navy Seal raid into Pakistan that killed Osama Bin Laden, published an op-ed in the Washington Post:
“Dear Mr. President:
Former CIA director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked on Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.
Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.
Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs.
A good leader tries to embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself.
Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities. Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.
If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be.”
What would this country’s Founders, the writers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the authors of our liberty have thought of all of this? To begin, they knew where the threat to our liberties would come from.
“A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us . . . those men who have overturned the liberties of the Republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”
—Alexander Hamilton, 1788
“These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?”
—Alexander Hamilton, 1788
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
—Benjamin Franklin (proposed for the Great Seal of the United States)
“I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 1800
“He . . . therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude merely upon a man’s haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty.”
—Samuel Adams, 1748
“If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its experienced Patriots to prevent its Ruin.”
—Samuel Adams, 1780
“But none of the means of information are more sacred, or have been cherished with more tenderness and care by the settlers of America, than the Press.”
—John Adams, 1768
“The freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments.”
—George Mason, 1776
“the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.”
George Washington 1783
“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”
—Benjamin Franklin, 1722
“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.”
—Benjamin Franklin, 1737
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”
—Samuel Adams, 1771
John Jay