Fox Host: Brennan ‘First Politicized’ Terrorism When He Called Out ‘Politically Motivated’ GOP Attacks

By Matt Corley Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted how Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) are calling for President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to either resign or be fired after he aggressively pushed back against the GOP politicization of the attempted Christmas Day bombing. As TPMmuckraker’s Justin Elliott has pointed out, Republican leaders like Bond and Hoekstra didn’t complain about would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab being given Miranda rights for two weeks after he was criminally charged in a civilian court — an act which guaranteed he would be made aware of his Miranda rights. Bond, Hoekstra and other Republican critics didn’t start making noise about Mirandizing Abdulmuttalab until after former Vice President Dick Cheney pioneered the critique. But on Fox News today, host Gregg Jarrett claimed it was Brennan’s pushback that first politicized the issue. “Wasn’t it Brennan who first politicized this when he blamed you Republicans for quote, ‘politically motivated’ ‘fearmongering’ and ‘aiding al Qaeda?‘” Jarrett asked Bond in an interview. Watch it: Jarrett is either unaware or simply disregarding the numerous political attacks that Bond has launched at the White House over the handing of the Christmas Day incident, even claiming that the Obama administration has a “pre-9/11 mentality”: – The Obama “administration [should] change course from their pre-9/11 mentality of treating terrorists like common criminals,” said Bond. [Politico, 1/22/10] – “If the Administration is serious about putting American safety over terrorist rights, they will stop treating these enemy combatants like common criminals,” said Bond. [Bond Press Release, 1/21/10] Additionally, on Feb. 4, Bond sent President Obama a letter accusing the administration of jeopardizing “sensitive information” to “further political arguments” when it disclosed to reporters that Abdulmuttalab was cooperating. Bond claimed that the FBI told “the leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee” not to disclose that he was cooperating, but Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein told Fox News that “at no time in the briefing did [FBI Director Robert] Mueller say that Abdulmutallab’s cooperation was not to be revealed” and two law enforcement officials told Fox that when Bond spoke to Mueller on the phone, Mueller was only warning “that new information about Abdulmutallab could become public.”