Former CIA Director John Brennan, who left his post at the conclusion of former President Barack Obama's administration last week, blasted President Donald Trump late Saturday, criticizing him for his speech to CIA employees on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking through former CIA deputy chief of staff Nick Shapiro, Brennan said that Trump should be "ashamed of himself" for his "despicable display of self-aggrandizement" at the CIA headquarters.
"Former CIA Dir Brennan is deeply saddened and angered at Trump's despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of CIA's Memorial Wall of Agency heroes. Brennan says that Trump should be ashamed of himself," Brennan said, according to Shapiro.
Speaking to CIA officers Saturday while standing in front of the memorial for fallen CIA agents, Trump appeared more focused on settling scores with the media. He berated journalists over the coverage of his inauguration and wrongly claimed that the crowd was much bigger than the media reported.
"I can only say that I am with you 1,000 percent. And the reason you’re my first stop is that as you know I have a running war with the media," Trump reportedly told the agents. "They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. Right? And they sort of made it sound like I have this feud with the intelligence community."
Still, this isn't he first time Brennan has lashed out at Trump. In fact, just last week, Brennan said on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump needs a greater "appreciation" for the U.S. intelligence community, while slamming him for comparing the intelligence community to something from Nazi Germany after BuzzFeed published a leaked intelligence dossier that was completely unverified and questionable.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
