(CNN) Here's the explanation Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch gave when asked why he supported President Donald Trump's decision to strip former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance:

"I'm surprised it took him so long. Brennan has not been a friend of the administration at all."

Hatch is not alone in that view. "John Brennan is a cable news pundit," Trump White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway said Friday morning in Washington. "He's a former CIA director who since then has shown no interest in helping this administration."

Um, what? By this standard, the criteria for stripping a former senior intelligence official of his security credentials is solely how nice and supportive he is to the current administration?

That's not how this works. Not any of it. How do I know? Because there are a set of 13 guidelines by which national security clearances are typically evaluated and revoked . Those factors:

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