Pompeo: ‘Ludicrous’ to think Trump is threat to US national security

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says in an interview set to air Sunday that it is “ludicrous” to think that President Trump is a threat to national security.

The Cabinet official was responding to a report from The New York Times published Friday night that claimed FBI agents began investigating whether Trump was working on behalf of Russia after he fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017.{mosads}

Comey was leading the federal probe into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election when he was fired by Trump.

“I’m not going to comment on New York Times stories, but I’ll certainly say this: the- the notion that President Trump is a threat to American national security is absolutely ludicrous,” Pompeo told CBS’s Margaret Brennan for an interview set to air on “Face the Nation.”

“The idea that’s contained in the New York Times story that President Trump was a threat to American national security is silly on its face and not worthy of a response,” he added.

Pompeo’s comments came hours after the White House blasted the notion that Trump’s firing of Comey represented Trump acting on behalf of Moscow, asserting that the Trump administration has maintained a tough stance against Russia.

“James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Friday.

“Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia,” she added.

Trump himself took aim at the report Saturday morning, calling Comey a “crooked cop” and arguing that the former top law enforcement official was being protected by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has been leading the Russia probe since shortly after Comey was fired in 2017.

“Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!” Trump tweeted.

“My firing of James Comey was a great day for America,” the president continued in subsequent tweets. “He was a Crooked Cop who is being totally protected by his best friend, Bob Mueller, & the 13 Angry Democrats – leaking machines who have NO interest in going after the Real Collusion (and much more) by Crooked Hillary Clinton, her Campaign, and the Democratic National Committee.”