The man who used to run the CIA, and lost his job when Donald Trump took office, did a huge amount of damage to the United States by calling the sitting president a traitor. Because of his presumed access to information unavailable to the public, many foreign leaders had reason to believe that they could resist the demands and requests of President Trump by simply outlasting him in office. Think Kim Jong un, Xi Jin ping, Angela Merkel, and of course Vladimir Putin for starters.

Victor Davis Hanson has pointed out that almost fifty years of American diplomacy has rested on the policy initiated by Henry Kissinger of playing off Russia and China against each other, but the Russia conspiracy hoax put an end to the ability of President Trump to use that valuable tool.  Brennan has been throwing around charges of treason for a long time:

Brennan castigated Trump for a widely condemned joint appearance with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland in which Trump suggested he found Putin more credible than the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors’,” Brennan tweeted, using language associated with impeachment. “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???”

Brennan has kept up his false attacks on Trump through regular appearances on MSNBC, where he is a paid contributor. Including very recently, as Terry Moran of ABC is pointing out

John Brennan has a lot to answer for—going before the American public for months, cloaked with CIA authority and openly suggesting he’s got secret info, and repeatedly turning in performances like this. pic.twitter.com/EziCxy9FVQ

— Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) March 25, 2019

He used the prestige of his position as DCI to advance his argument that the president was a criminal and a traitor. What he did makes it harder for future DCIs to maintain the confidence of the country; he poisoned that high office with partisan hackery.

— Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) March 25, 2019

But now that the Mueller Report has stated there is no evidence of any collusion between Russia and Trump or any members of his staff, Brennan is attempting to squirm out of responsibility for his lies:

Brennan on MSNBC: Well, I don't know if I received bad information but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was. I am relieved that it's been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election. pic.twitter.com/V2D7Cg9KsV

— Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱 (@PolishPatriotTM) March 25, 2019

I am waiting for him to blame Trump for ending his security clearance, though of course an honest man would have kept his mouth shut if there were no longer good information available to him. Of course, that might mean no more checks from MSNBC deposited in his bank account.

Of ourse, what Brennan must really be worried about is his probably large role in launching the spying on the Trump campaign that took place long before Crossfire Hurricane was begun by the FBI counterintelligence operation under Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

Meanwhile, I have to wonder how much longer Brennan’s gig at MSNBC will last, given the memo that the Trump re-election campaign has sent to all the networks. Via Legal Insurrection:

Six Democrats were mentioned in a memo sent by the re-election campaign to networks: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell, DNC Chair Tom Perez,  and John Brennan, former CIA director.

From CNBC:

Trump’s re-election campaign sent a memo to television producers on Monday instructing them to “employ basic journalistic standards when booking” six current or former government officials that the campaign said “made outlandish, false claims, without evidence” while on air.

The others targeted in the memo either declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

The Trump campaign letter comes a day after Attorney General William Barr told lawmakers that special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

The two-page letter, which was distributed to producers for all the networks and cable outlets, cited comments that the guests made on air alleging that there was evidence of collusion.

“Moving forward, we ask that you employ basic journalistic standards when booking such guests to appear anywhere in your universe of productions,” wrote Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s director of communications, in the memo. The campaign wrote that the producers should “begin by asking” the following question:

Does this guest warrant further appearances in our programming, given the outrageous and unsupported claims made in the past?

“At a minimum, if these guests do reappear, you should replay the prior statements and challenge them to provide the evidence which promoted them to make wild claims in the first place,” Murtaugh wrote.

One thing we know: Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest eyeball-getter, isn’t penitent in the least:

She’s taking this well pic.twitter.com/ccY3y4iUrc

— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) March 26, 2019