Tucker Carlson delivered commentary Wednesday night on President Trump's decision to revoke Obama-era CIA director John Brennan's security clearance and the media framing it as an attack on the press.



"The fact that they retained that power after leaving government for the private sector and punditry is bizarre, and remained largely unknown to the public," Carlson said of Trump critics John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper.



Carlson called the media Brennan's "faithful handmaidens" and said the "state media" is taking up for him and defending his access to a security clearance. Carlson said journalists ought to be skeptical of the powerful and "secretive bureaucrats like John Brennan." Instead, he said, they have decided he and his colleagues are not bound by the same rules as everyone else.











"Journalists ought to be skeptical of the powerful," Carlson said. They ought to demand accountability and clear explanations from secretive bureaucrats like John Brennan and from the agency he once worked for."



"Instead, they have become Brennan's faithful handmaidens, arguing that he and his colleagues in the intelligence world are not bound by the same rules that you and I are," he said.



"That is the message on every other channel. That is state media, the definition of it," Carlson concluded.





TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. The White House announced today it has revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan.



It is considering doing the same to other former government officials who, like Brennan, now work as left-wing political pundits.



That category would include former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper. It's not clear why any of these men still have legal access to classified material.



The fact that they retained that power after leaving government for the private sector and punditry is bizarre, and remained largely unknown to the public, until a month ago, when we broke the story on this show.



Brennan no longer works for the federal government in any capacity; he holds no official post. And yet, according to two sources we spoke to exclusively today, Brennan retains perhaps the most valuable asset he had in government, a top-secret security clearance.



Brennan is an out-of-the-closet extremist. This is not a man who should have security clearance. A month later, that remains true. John Brennan remains thoroughly discredited and unbalanced.



Just a few weeks ago, he accused the President of treason for daring to hold a press conference with a foreign leader. Keep in mind that treason is a death-penalty offense. Responsible people do not make that charge for political reasons, but Brennan didn't hesitate.



(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)



JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: He is I think the most divisive President we've ever had in the Oval Office. He is feeding and fueling hatred and animosity and misunderstandings among Americans.



I use the term that this is nothing short of treasonous, because it is a betrayal of the nation. He is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.



(END VIDEO CLIP)



CARLSON: A betrayal of the nation. Would you want a person who say casually accused people of murder without evidence to get a security clearance? Obviously, you wouldn't. Brennan is not different.



In a statement released today, Brennan called the loss of his clearance an effort to suppress freedom of speech, and yet Brennan is the one who believes that words alone speech are a form of treason and should get you sent to prison, if not executed. That is unhinged.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: CARLSON: If you're watching television today, you will have noted that the press is framing this question whether or not John Brennan ought to have a top secret security clearance, as an unprovoked assault on democracy itself.



Here's a selection.



(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)



AMANDA CARPENTER, POLITICAL ADVISOR, CNN: What we witnessed from the White House podium today was a brazen act of intimidation.



MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NSA, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, AND DIRECTOR OF CIA: The way that Sarah Huckabee Sanders rolled this out was almost a tone to be threatening to the rest of us.



BEN RHODES, FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: Yanking their security clearance just because he doesn't like being criticized is authoritarianism in its purest form.



SYMONE D. SANDERS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: The President sent his White House press secretary out there today to basically poop on the people from the press secretary podium, and not only threatened like - they didn't just make the threat, it was a promise.



(END VIDEO CLIP)



CARLSON: What she just watched is a precise inversion of the traditional role of the press. Journalists ought to be skeptical of the powerful. They ought to demand accountability and clear explanations from secretive bureaucrats like John Brennan and from the agency he once worked for.



But they're not. Instead, they have become Brennan's faithful handmaidens, arguing that he and his colleagues in the intelligence world are not bound by the same rules that you and I are.



The intelligence establishment does what it wants, they tell us, your job is to obey. They are in charge; you are a serf. They spy on you without limit; you accept a life with no privacy. But don't complain, insolence is disloyalty, dissent is treason.



That is the message on every other channel. That is state media, the definition of it.

More commentary after an interview with Lou Dobbs: