'Disappointed and disgusted': Senator stunned by Trump's latest 'purge'

The ouster of Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) as chair of the House Intelligence Committee is an early indication that allegiance to President-elect Donald Trump will come above all else in the Republican-controlled Congress, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) warned Thursday.

“It sends a message to the House and to the Senate that Trump is going to put personal loyalty to him ahead of the national interest and the United States’ security interests,” Blumenthal said of Turner’s removal from the powerful House committee, which has been attributed to pressure from Trump.

The Connecticut senator made the remarks during an interview on CNN, where he added that the situation involving Turner – who he praised as a “serious leader of the intelligence community in terms of oversight” – is part of a larger, “tragic trend” playing out on Capitol Hill as the president-elect prepares to return to the White House and his new administration takes shape.

“I’m disappointed and disgusted that he has been purged from this position and replaced with someone who is far less qualified,” Blumenthal said. “But I’m also really disappointed and disgusted with this purge as being part of a larger trend that we're seeing."

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Blumenthal went on to criticize Trump’s nominees for top government positions as just another set of examples of the incoming president’s demand for loyalty.

“He has a nominee for the FBI who says he's going to purge the ranks of that dedicated group of investigators and enforcers at the FBI,” Blumenthal told CNN host Erin Burnett. “A nominee for attorney general who's going to apparently support that effort, and a nominee for the Department of Defense who says that he's going to purge the United States military of non-loyalists to Donald Trump."

He concluded that it is all part of “a very dangerous and tragic trend” playing out days before Trump is even officially sworn in as president.

Watch the clip below or at this link: