Former Trump Officials Debate His 'Ignorance' Of Vital National Security Bill

Former Donald Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin slammed her ex-boss after he "urged House Republicans to reject a reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, ahead of the key procedural vote on Wednesday" according to CNN.

FISA enables "warrantless surveillance of non-Americans by U.S. intelligence agencies," and Trump encouraged his party to "kill" the legislation — resulting in a chaotic and unproductive for the GOP leaders.

Griffin, who turned on the MAGA hopeful when she declared President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, took to X (formerly Twitter) to blast the former president's lack of knowledge on the bill. She tweeted:

Trump:

-doesn’t understand FISA

-doesn’t understand Signals intelligence gathering-

doesn’t even understand that the Carter Page order wasn’t sought under Section 702

His ignorance & personal grievance is going to cripple our national security.

Another former Trump official took offense to Griffin's tweet, suggesting Griffin doesn't know what she's talking about.

Former Trump intelligence officer Richard Grenell said to Griffin: "You wrote press releases and didn’t get the daily compartmentalized intel briefings on threats, and you never saw the FISA application process. There is so much you never had access to. You don’t understand what you are tweeting. The abuses are real even though you didn’t see them, Alyssa."

Grenell's appointment to Trump's cabinet was heavily criticized, as he lacked the experience necessary for the role of Director of National Intelligence.

According to federal law, "Any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise."

Griffin, who's now a co-host on The View and a CNN contributor, shot back: "Yes. I did. And as a former Director of ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] I’m surprised you’re unaware of the level of classified briefings every Pentagon Press Secretary receives every morning in a SCIF [sensitive compartmented information facility]."

On January 6, 2021, after the attack on the US Capitol, a tweet from Griffin went viral, in which she wrote: "Dear MAGA- I am one of you. Before I worked for @realDonaldTrump, I worked for @MarkMeadows & @Jim_Jordan & the @freedomcaucus. I marched in the 2010 Tea Party rallies. I campaigned w/ Trump & voted for him. But I need you to hear me: the Election was NOT stolen. We lost."

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet