Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Rand Paul Talks Brennan's Security Clearance, Russia Trip

Interview

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INGRAHAM: Well that's all very subtle, isn't it? Kentucky Senator Rand Paul made a bold suggestion to President Trump late last month, strip former CIA director John Brennan of his security clearance, along with many other former government officials acting irresponsibly. And of course, President Trump is now doing exactly that.

So does Senator Paul deserver some kudos here? The senator joins us now exclusively with reaction and details on his recent trip to Russia. Senator, great to see you. You came back to some pretty powerful news. Were you the first one to suggest this to the president and did you talk to him about this since you returned?

SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY.: I'm going to talk to him about it this weekend so, about the trip to Russia and also John Brennan. I've been calling for a review of the security clearances of a lot of folks, you know, Peter Strzok and others for months and months and months. I wrote a letter to the FBI director last January does he still have clearance.

But with John Brennan, I think what the left is ignoring is that I think he should have had his clearance revoked for cause. You know, he leaked information that came out in the media, that we had a double agent in Yemen -- remember when we were going after the underwear bomber? There still is a bomb maker in Yemen. He leaked that his media.

Two people, Richard Clarke, who had a security clearance, and then he went on television saying oh, not to worry, we have a double agent in Yemen. The double agent was still there and he put that agent's life at risk. John Brennan should have been fired for that alone.

INGRAHAM: And then the spying on the Senate committee, the Dianne Feinstein, like you guys are looking into my staff's computers. He denies it. They get the results of the -- from the documents, turns out they were totally spying.

PAUL: There is also a question of whether he lied to the House Intelligence committee when he said he did not know who paid for the fake Trump dossier. He said, I didn't know, so there are two possibilities. He's either lying or he's incompetent because if he's in charge of the CIA and they are using this fake dossier and no one bothered to ask who paid for it --

INGRAHAM: And didn't he say he didn't know about it initially?

PAUL: I think he said he didn't know it was paid for by --

INGRAHAM: Oh, well, it's like kind of fuzzy.

PAUL: Yes. So the head of the CIA doesn't know that this fake dossier was paid for by the Clinton campaign, so that is either incompetent or he's lying, one of the two.

INGRAHAM: Senator, he was pressed on this about Brennan yesterday, about the security clearance, Brennan was pressed on it yesterday and then he was pressed on well, could it be that the president is answering to a third party, not just to the American voters. Let's watch.

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INGRAHAM: Yeah, and today, all those I don't knows, senator, but today in the The New York Times, he writes in part at the end, "Mr. Trump's claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash" -- but he fairly (ph) said he doesn't know, but then he claims of no collusion are hogwash. The man is unhinged. I mean, that's a bold statement there. Unhinged.

PAUL: Well the thing is that, you know, you look at the -- a guy who called the president treasonous. So, the commander-in-chief he calls treasonous and apparently that would be advocating for the death penalty for the president, and yet he still wants access to the nation's secret? Crazy.

INGRAHAM: So, Russia, you just came back from your trip to the former Soviet Union. You met, I know, top government officials, both from the -- what's equivalent of their legislator. What can you tell the American people tonight about the state of U.S.-Russian relations under President Trump?

PAUL: I think from both sides that our relations are at the worst they have been since the height of the Cold War, and this is a real tragedy. One of the great things that Ronald Reagan did was sitting down with Gorbachev. And so one of the highlights for me is I got to sit down for an hour with former President Gorbachev and talk about his recollections with Ronald Reagan.

But also talk about how both sides, both Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev had to defy the orthodoxy of their country to sit down and come to agreements. And they didn't, you know, call each other names, they didn't say murderous thug and talk about all the terrible things, some of which did happen, throughout a long period of time. And so the union (ph), they sat down and said, let's try to make it better. And they did.

INGRAHAM: Are some of these government officials going to be coming to the United States? I know you had extended an invitation with some thought of Trump meeting with Putin, I guess that's off the table. I mean, there's a lot on the table, off the table. I think people are very confused about this.

PAUL: They have two houses in their parliament, one called the federation, which is like our Senate, their upper body and then they the Duma, which is the lower body. They have both agreed to come to Washington in the fall for further meetings. That is good thing. The downside is, the chairman of each of the committees is banned from coming to the United States because of sanctions.

So one of the things I'm going to ask the president, I'm going to talk to the president's weekend, is that I'm going to say why don't we take people off the list --

INGRAHAM: At least temporarily.

PAUL: -- who are in the legislature.

INGRAHAM: Yes, or at least temporarily so they can come and speak.

PAUL: Exactly.

INGRAHAM: Senator Paul, we really appreciate you coming in tonight and thank you for giving the update on the trip.

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