Trump praises Aretha Franklin’s legacy at Cabinet meeting

President Trump is speaking to reporters at the White House during a Cabinet meeting at the White House Thursday, in his first public remarks since revoking the security clearance of former CIA director and vocal Trump critic John Brennan.

The president began the Cabinet meeting by acknowledging the passing of singer Aretha Franklin, offering his “warmest best wishes and sympathies” her family, according to the White House press pool. The president described her as someone who worked for him and he knew well, saying her “legacy will thrive and inspire” many generations. The president had also expressed his condolences on Twitter.

The White House announced the decision to revoke Brennan’s clearance on Wednesday, with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders “erratic conduct and behavior” and “lying.” The move sparked intensely negative reactions from Democrats, who accused the president of “authoritarian” and “banana republic behavior,” among other things.

Deliberately or not, the revocation distracted attention from Omarosa Manigault Newman, who has released tapes of what she claims are conversations with people in the West Wing, including with Mr. Trump.

“This might be a convenient way to distract attention, say from a damaging news story or two,” Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a tweet. “But politicizing the way we guard our nation’s secrets just to punish the president’s critics is a dangerous precedent.”