Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday blamed Intelligence officials under the Obama administration for not notifying Trump's campaign earlier that some Russians were trying to infiltrate Trump's orbit. | AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Politics Cornyn: Former CIA Director Brennan was on 'search-and-destroy mission' against Trump

Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday accused former CIA Director John Brennan of being on a "search-and-destroy mission" to undermine President Donald Trump's administration.

"Well I think Director Brennan certainly has covered himself in glory in all this," Cornyn (R-Texas) said during an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. "He seems like he's been on a search-and-destroy mission from Day One and unduly partisan and that continues until now."


Brennan was CIA director during Trump's transition into the White House and left office the same day Trump was inaugurated in 2017. While CIA director, Brennan criticized Trump, saying that the then-president-elect did not fully understand Russia's capabilities of interfering in U.S. elections.

Since leaving office, Brennan has been a prominent critic of Trump, claiming there had been collusion between the president's campaign and Russia. The former CIA director on Monday walked back his claims, saying that the information he was given was apparently wrong and that he had suspected there was more to the Russia story than there was."

Attorney General William Barr sent shockwaves through Washington and beyond last Sunday when he announced that special counsel Robert Mueller had determined that Trump's campaign did not collude with Russia.

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Cornyn on Tuesday blamed Intelligence officials under the Obama administration for not notifying Trump's campaign earlier that some Russians were trying to infiltrate Trump's orbit.

"It's pretty clear to me that the president himself was never told that the Russians were shaking the door handle and the windows and trying to get into the campaign," Cornyn said, adding that Trump was never "given the defensive briefing that Loretta Lynch said was routine so he could tell these folks to knock it off or disassociate them with his campaign."

The Texas Republican also claimed without evidence that Obama administration officials, like former FBI Director James Comey, tried to discredit Trump after his surprise upset in the 2016 presidential election.

"They were more than happy to pursue this search-and-destroy mission starting with Director Comey who testified in open session before the Intelligence Committee that he's the one who sent a memo [about] his conversations with the president to his law professor buddy and asked him to release it to the press so a special counsel would be appointed," Cornyn said.

"This is really ugly looking. Talk about interference with our elections and the mandate of our voters. This is it," he said.