Friday on CNN’s “The Lead,” network political analyst Kirsten Powers said President Donald Trump’s threat to revoke more security clearances after doing so to former CIA Director John Brennan was the action of an “authoritarian wannabe.”

Powers said, “Donald Trump doesn’t care, obviously doesn’t care about that. What he cares about is he has been insulted. This is all part of a sort of profile of the authoritarian wannabe and what you expect from despotic countries led more by despots and not led by democratically elected presidents.”

She continued, “The other thing I think is interesting about this is—I wrote a book about free speech, really from the sort of left side, saying this is a very liberal value that I think a lot of the left isn’t taking seriously. Guess who really loved the book? Conservatives. Now they completely have no interest in free speech whatsoever. One of the things I talked about is it is not just the government oppressing free speech, it’s when you take away the ability—when you try to delegitimize people — which is exactly what Donald Trump is trying to do, he is trying to delegitimize them He is making character assassination attacks against John Brennan—he’s erratic or whatever. And he really is trying to silence free speech and criticism.”

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