they all sort of descend to that same level. you have a former director doing that same thing. and pretty soon, you have rouhani from iran -- we're in a very strange position right now. where we're debating serious, serious issues with 280 actors. so i don't know that any of us know how to process the point, but i guess, if you're asking for my opinion after years of dealing with classified material, i would not want my clearances to have been revoked for political reasons, because i'm simply stating my mind. that's not appropriate. >> mike baker, nice to have you. thank you so much. let's discuss the politics of all of this. patrick healey, our cnn political analyst is here. also joining me, caitlin huey-burns with real clear politics. let's go through and unpack where sarah sanders said yesterday. this was prompted by a question that a reporter asked about a series of tweets by republican congressman, rand paul, who's been in a big way in the