On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that he has a hard time getting worked up over the revocation of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance.

Brooks said, “I mean, he’s politicized something that probably shouldn’t be politicized. But I confess I have trouble getting my knickers in a twist about this one.”

Brooks continued, “A lot of us don’t have security clearances. It doesn’t seem to be a problem in life. The reason they keep people on security clearance after their time in office is so they can offer advice. And I think, frankly, it’s a little of a vanity thing, that people get to say, I still have my security clearance. And so, when it’s taken away — but John Brennan wasn’t giving the Trump administration advice anyway. And so the idea they have to live without security clearance after they’ve been out of office doesn’t strike me as one of Donald Trump’s most massive transgressions in office. It doesn’t strike me particularly as a free speech issue. … I guess there’s some disadvantage, career disadvantage, to people who are — who may be younger, but of the top 5,000 Trump transgressions, I would not put this high on the charts.”

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