"There's No One I Respect More" — Trump To CIA
- by Carmen Reese
- in Science
- — Jan 23, 2017
They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth.
"Very, very few people could do the job you people do and I want you to know I am so behind you", Trump said, to cheers and loud applause.
The President has often criticized the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Throughout the campaign, Trump refused to make his filings public, saying they're under audit by the Internal Revenue Service and he'd release them only once that review is complete. We count several specific instances when he publicly disparaged the intelligence community.
He also said things that must have baffled numerous 300 Central Intelligence Agency employees who gathered for the visit, came in on a day off to see their new boss.
Mr Trump, likening U.S. intelligence to Nazis, suggested earlier that Mr Brennan himself may have leaked an unsubstantiated report that the Russians had gathered damaging salacious personal information about him. "People didn't care", Conway said on ABC's "This Week".
Trump wrongly said the crowd had stretched all the way to the Washington Monument in the middle of the National Mall. "And it is about serving the American people". He attended the service with his wife, Melania, and Vice President Mike Pence.
In his news conference on January 11, Trump accused the intelligence community of leaking the information. One last shot at me. "That's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did", he said. Trump asked those gathered. "This is a gem", Trump said.
Trump also tweeted his suspicions that intelligence officials were behind the leaked file. "You're going to get so much backing that you're going to say, 'Please don't give us so much backing".
Trump also misrepresented what happened to the weather during his swearing in.
"Brennan says that Trump should be ashamed of himself".
By that point, intelligence officials had briefed Trump with the details behind their conclusions.
Trump's team was not happy about that, as White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus clapped back saying that the former director should be punished for media reports that the president's relationship with USA intelligence agencies is less than ideal.
"It was nearly raining - the rain should have scared them away - but God looked down and he said "we are not going to let it rain on your speech"...and then it poured right after I left", Trump said.
He again went after the intelligence community after Buzzfeed and others published an anti-Trump-funded private intelligence dossier.
He also blamed any suggestion of a "feud" between himself and the intelligence agencies on the press. At the time, he alleged they leaked information about Russian interference in the presidential election.
The press did not invent Trump's harsh words and dismissive tone.