Senator Rand Paul commandeered a press conference set up outside the CIA briefing on Jamal Khashoggi after being blocked from attending.
The senator blasted the deep state for keeping him and other lawmakers in the dark.
Senator Paul was one of several senators who called for CIA Director Gina Haspel to come brief them last week. Following a senate vote to pull US support for the war in Yemen, she finally agreed to come and brief a small handful of senators. The Kentucky firebrand didn’t make the list.
The briefing, according to the New York Times, was “an attempt to mollify lawmakers who last week signaled they might not continue military support for the Saudi-backed war in Yemen without more information about the Saudi dissident’s killing.” Their main focus, per the report, was to appease Senator Lindsey Graham.
Never afraid to speak his mind, Senator Paul arrived outside the secure briefing room anyways to take over the press conference set up and tell the media that he has questions for Haspel that he should be permitted to ask — but he is being barred from doing so by the deep state.
“I’ve read in the media that the CIA has said with high confidence that the crown prince was involved with killing Khashoggi. I have not seen that intelligence nor have I even seen the conclusions. Today there is yet another briefing, and I’m being excluded from that. So really, this is the deep state at work that your representatives don’t know what’s going on in the intelligence agencies,” Paul said.
The Director of the CIA has arrived in the Senate, yet almost every senator has been excluded. Why not share information with the entire Senate on MBS’ role in the killing of a journalist? Saudi Arabia continues to spread radicalism & we shouldn’t continue to blindly support them pic.twitter.com/xfCIL3LnWU
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 4, 2018
“This is the very definition of the deep state,” Senator Paul told Fox News. “The deep state is that the intelligence agencies do things, conclude things, make conclusions, but then the elected officials are prevented from knowing about this. If we aren’t told about this and I’m not allowed to know about these conclusions, then I can’t have oversight … the deep state grows and has more and more power.”
"I know about the information of the CIA’s conclusions only by reading it in the media. There are eight people in congress who get briefings on intelligence. That's not democracy," Rand Paul said outside of an exclusive CIA briefing he and most senators were barred from attending pic.twitter.com/rlKMVVDho1
— POLITICO (@politico) December 4, 2018
Senator Paul also blasted the deep state on Twitter earlier Tuesday morning over their secrecy.
“Do you want to know what the deep state is?” the Kentucky senator asked. “The CIA Director is coming to the US Senate and only briefing a select few members of the Senate. Why shouldn’t every senator know what is going on? The deep state wants to keep everyone in the dark. This is just ridiculous!”
Do you want to know what the deep state is? The CIA Director is coming to the US Senate and only briefing a select few members of the Senate. Why shouldn’t every senator know what is going on? The deep state wants to keep everyone in the dark. This is just ridiculous!
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 4, 2018
The incident lead to a Twitter battle between Senator Paul’s Deputy Chief of Staff and CNN analyst Susan Hennessey — who accused the senator of “doing his ordinary BS grandstanding routine.”
Gateway Pundit Poll: Should Trump Declassify The FISA Documents To Expose The Deep State?
Gor responded by asking how Hennessey is a CNN analyst and calling their raising of a red flag about the CIA excluding 90% of senators from a briefing “bs.”
How are you a @CNN analyst @Susan_Hennessey ? The CIA excludes 90% of senators from a briefing, we raise a red flag and you call it BS? @SamFeistCNN @mkraju @DanaBashCNN @PrestonCNN @CNNPR https://t.co/kwoMUSoQii
— Sergio Gor (@SergioGor) December 4, 2018
The post Senator Rand Paul Commandeers Press Conference Outside Khashoggi Hearing – BLASTS Deep State (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
