Chris Lu, former White House cabinet secretary under President Barack Obama told CNN on Monday that the new security clearance scandal enveloping President Donald Trump would have never happened under his predecessor.
"It's sometimes hard given the daily barrage of news to separate what's important and what's not important. This is important," Lu said of the 25 White House officials given security clearances over the objections of career officials. "Political appointees should certainly not have anything to do with this and certainly the president should not have anything to do with this. This is supposed to be based on the best interests of the U.S. government and national security."
"I was cleared three times during different times when I worked for Barack Obama," he added. "I suspect if I could not have gotten a clearance, I know for a fact he would not have overruled career officials. That's not the way we conducted business."
Meanwhile, Lu said, the impact of Trump's decision to overrule his advisors would continue to reverberate throughout the government.
"You can't unring that bell," he said. "On top of that the White House wasn't doing basic credit checks to find out if people had financial problems, they were subject to potential blackmail and this is concerning. This should be bipartisan, and I think of all of the investigations this is potentially the one that should concern Republicans most of all."
Lu emphasized the stakes for national security as well.
"When you get a top secret clearance you have access to the most sensitive information in the U.S. Government," he said. "That would be incredibly valuable to any foreign power, and you want to make sure that every box has been checked, every hurdle has been cleared, before those are given out."
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