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Security clearance and looking into the clearances of comey, clapper, hayden, rice and mccabe. the president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they've politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances. >> all right. let's bring in the political and legal experts. laura coats, what is your reaction to the stunning announcement at the white house? >> it's a punishment for those that criticized the president of the united states which is not at all what we think about democracy. that's more of somebody who is a tyrannical situation...

To express their unpolitical opinions once they leave office? >> well, i think it does. it's a very sad and disturbing thing for the first amendment. >> and one quick question. tell us, general clapper, how many years did you serve in the active u.s. military and how personally irritated are you right now that someone with your background in the military, 30, 40 years, whatever it was, is being treated like this? >> well, obviously, i think it's pretty shabby. and i'm not -- just not me. i served 34 years in the military altogether. counting my marine corps, reserve time, and then 32 years in ...

Last night on cnn, james clapper seemed to reaffirm that. here he was. >> before we left the room, started writing a press release about our encounter, trying to say that the russian meddling, russian interference had no impact on the outcome of the election. we didn't say that but i think there was skepticism from the get go from that day to this day that indicated that anything that attacked the legitimacy of now president trump's election, he couldn't get his head around. >> couldn't get his head around, bob baer. what more can intelligence agencies do to prove to this president that russia...

Back. i guess frankly what just seems to be an absurd way, saying the president was for the first time ever just saying no, no more questions when in fact he didn't say no, no more questions. he just said no and thank you very much. i mean, to hear chris wray, he's obviously an honorable person, but he is saying what he believes, but it certainly contradict what's the president seems to believe. >> well, yeah. to his credit as well as that of dan coats for speaking up and speaking truth to power, which by the way was the subject of the, quote, beautiful letter, unquote, that president trump al...

Believes, but it certainly contradict what's the president seems to believe. >> well, yeah. to his credit as well as that of dan coats for speaking up and speaking truth to power, which by the way was the subject of the, quote, beautiful letter, unquote, that president trump alluded to in his cbs interview. and it is not a witch-hunt. it is a serious, serious investigation, the catalyst for which was the intelligence community assessment that we did in the last administration. >> general clapper, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. coming up more from the cbs interview about what went...