CNN pro-Trump commentator dismisses national security concerns about Jared Kushner's security clearance

David Urban: Memos by John Kelly or Don McGahn “could just be simple HR housekeeping things”

From the March 1 edition of CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto

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POPPY HARLOW (CO-HOST): OK, on the reporting this morning from the Times and The Washington Post, Errol, the president's denial that he got involved at all in this security clearance issue with Jared Kushner, despite now a contemporaneous memo we've learned from his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, should any president bigfoot security professionals ever when it comes to this? 

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DAVID URBAN (CNN COMMENTATOR): It's been well reported that the president clearly has the authority to do this. No one is certain of what's in the memos that put it in the file, in the personnel file by then Chief of Staff General Kelly or White House Counsel Don McGahn. So we don't know exactly what is says, so to classify those as somehow alarming memos, we don't know, they could just be simple HR housekeeping things. And just to be very clear about the clearance here, there are two specific pieces to a security clearance that I believe Jared was applying for. There is the TS portion, the top secret portion, which is done by the FBI and kind of handled inside the White House. And then there is the SCI portion: the special departmentalized portion, which is handled by the folks at Langley and the CIA. So we don't know exactly what portion he was declined for during this entire episode. He could have been declined for the SCI portion and that's -- and the president said, “Well let's just him the TS, make sure he has a TS because he needs that to do his work.” So until everybody knows the facts, I would just tell everyone to just exhale and just, you know, I think America is still safe with Jared Kushner having a TS secret clearance. 

Previously

Lou Dobbs guest defends Jared Kushner's security clearance: “We should be grateful he is there”

Fox & Friends ignores report that foreign governments viewed Kushner as vulnerable to manipulation

Fox & Friends spent 22 seconds this week covering Jared Kushner. Here is what it covered instead.