This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," August 20, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I felt his behavior was treasonous, which is to betray one's trust and to aid and abet the enemy, and I stand very much by that.

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: John is sort of like a freight train, and he's going to say what's on his mind. But John and his rhetoric has become, I think, an issue in and of itself.

BRENNAN: I have been contacted by a number of lawyers and they have already given me their thoughts about the basis for a complaint, an injunction to try to prevent him from doing this in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Security clearance yanked from former CIA director John Brennan, the president tweeting out "I hope John Brennan, the worst CIA director in our country's history, brings a lawsuit. It will then be very easy to get all of his records, texts, emails and documents to show not only the poor job that he did but how he was involved with the Mueller rigged witch hunt. He won't sue! Everybody wants to keep their security clearance. It's worth great prestige and big dollars, even board seats, and that is why certain people are coming forward to protect Brennan. It certainly isn't because of the good job that he did. He is a political hack."

Adding to that, on the Reuters investigation this afternoon just moments before this show started, the president was talking about the perjury trap possibility if he sat down with Mueller, "expressed fears that the investigators could compare his statements with that of others who have testified in the probe, such as a former FBI director James Comey, and that any discrepancies could be used against him. Even if I'm telling the truth, that makes me a liar, the president said. That's no good." He "did not comment on whether he would agree to an interview." He "also declined to say whether he would strip Mueller of his security clearance." That's the new news from Reuters.

Let's bring in our panel: Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen; Marie Harf, Fox News analyst and co-host of "Benson and Harf" on Fox News Radio, and Chris Stirewalt, politics editor here at Fox News. A lot of different parts in this investigation, stuff, it's like throwing it all out. Marc?

MARC THIESSEN, WASHINGTON POST: On the Brennan stuff, the president made a big mistake because this backfired on him. So John Brennan has been out there saying ridiculous things like accusing the president of treasons for having a press conference with Vladimir Putin which everybody thinks, even most people in the intelligence community thinks is outlandish. And so even people in the intelligence community have been concerned with what John Brennan is saying that the way he has politicized and the way he is conducting himself.

And what the president managed to do was to take John Brennan who was beclowning himself on the national stage and it made him into a martyr. It's like the scene in "Spartacus" -- in the movie in 1960 when all the slaves are standing there, and the Roman general says to them you will be denied crucifixion as long as you give up Spartacus. And all of a sudden they all start saying "I'm Spartacus! I'm Spartacus!" Everybody in the intelligence community, even people who don't like John Brennan, are saying I'm Spartacus. So this has completely backfired on the president of the United States.

BAIER: Although you hear in Clapper's statement, Maria, a little bit like, you know, John, with the treason, not sure.

MARIE HARF, "BENSON AND HARF" CO-HOST: Yes, and you heard Mike Mullen say that on FOX News Sunday, and a lot of the people that signed that letter, the former CIA directors and deputy directors I am sure don't agree with what John Brennan is saying and probably voted for President Trump. They don't like, as Marc said, they don't like what Donald Trump did in terms of stripping the clearance in response to what he had been saying publicly.

Now he's talking about possibly stripping Mueller's clearance. I don't think he's going to, but these little breadcrumbs, these test balloons he throws out, it's like he's just trying to troll all of us, saying, well, maybe I'll do it because there's no change I get a fair hearing here. It's like he's trying to set up a situation no matter what Mueller comes back with. Everyone is lying and he's the only one telling the truth, and that I think is dangerous.

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICS EDITOR: Gladiator movies aside, the reality here, no matter what, is that Donald Trump wants to pick his enemy. And he thought that he had in Brennan the perfect enemy.

BAIER: But doesn't he?

STIREWALT: Well, except for this. If the president stops here and there isn't anymore, then this goes away, and it's fine. But to Marc's point, one more, you try one more of these, and, especially given the messaging from the White House, why did you do it. Well, we did it this way, and the president says, no, it's because of the Russia witch hunt. That's why I did it. He can tread no further beyond this line without consequences coming back. But if it stays here and it stays in this phase, making John Brennan the face of the deep state probably helps the president to a certain degree.

BAIER: Meantime, The New York Times with a story over the weekend about the White House Don McGahn, cooperating, they say, extensively with the Mueller inquiry. A lot of thoughts about this. Here's Rush Limbaugh today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: McGahn spoke to Mueller a long time ago, we are just now hearing about it. They want you to think it happened over the weekend, but it didn't. It was a while ago. And nothing has come of it. There haven't been any leaks from what McGahn says. So Rudy thinks that this means Mueller is panicking. The Mueller team is panicking, because they've got nothing, and so they are leaking all this stuff to make it look like they have got something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: What about that, Marc?

THIESSEN: I think Trump critics have to get their narrative right. So either he is obstructing justice or he isn't. So this whole narrative has been that Donald Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey, he's not refusing to meet with the Special Counsel, he's attacking Mueller, obstruction of the investigation. But then we find out that the president of the United States allowed his White House counsel to spend 30 hours with Mueller, and he didn't have to do it. He waived both executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to do it. And they're saying, oh, well, it's because he made a mistake or he was badly advised by his lawyers.

No, the president of the United States is behaving like someone who says I didn't collude with Russia. And let's speed it up and let's get this going and let's cooperate.

BAIER: Chris Christie on the Sunday shows saying this is a horrible thing legally, but isn't there a kernel of that in that decision?

HARF: It depends on why the president did it. The president also could be overconfident. He could go into this thinking, yes, say whatever you want, I don't think I did anything wrong, when it turns out maybe he did. The truth is, no one on the White House team knows the full extent of what Don McGahn said, and I think you saw from the president's tweets in response today that it hit a nerve. And that maybe he's a little nervous that he's not quite sure, and maybe was a little overconfident with his previous strategy.

BAIER: But in this New York Times piece it also says McGahn told the Mueller folks that he never saw the president exceed his legal authorities. Now, you could argue what the executive legal authorities and where they go, but that seems like a pretty significant sentence down in paragraph seven.

STIREWALT: Maybe I've been breathing Potomac air for too long.

(LAUGHTER)

STIREWALT: But my assumption here is that this was a story that either generated from or was placed for the purposes of trying to hurt McGahn or hurt some part of the president's legal team, and that this represents conflict between the sides as they are trying to push the president into one way or the other. And right now it seems like Giuliani and company are trying to push Trump away from working with Mueller and giving the interview, and this could be part of the way to try to flush Trump out.

BAIER: Rudy Giuliani will be on with Martha at 7 p.m. You don't want to miss that.

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