hates. none of these, though, are new tricks of mr. trump's trade. but today, there was a new attempted d eed diversion and aw novel way of attacking his highly credentialed critics, all former officials in law enforcement, national security, or the intelligence community. now he wants to punish them for speaking out by stripping them of their security clearances. it began with republican senator rand paul lobbying the president to do it of former cia director john brennan, who has become a vocal critic of the president. so rand paul may have started the idea, but by the time today's white house press beefing was over, the list also included james clapper, former fbi director james comey, former national security adviser susan rice, former dev if i fbi director andrew mccabe and former cia national security agent michael hayden. comey and mccabe no longer have clearances, but that small, important detail didn't stop the white house from attacking them. in any case, here is what the white house said about it at all. >> when you have the highest level of security clearance, when you're the person that holds the nation's deepest, most