John Kiriakou

John Brennan and Barack Obama's actions convinced me that I had done the right thing.

And now I have found common cause with populist Republicans.

You don't have to agree on every issue, right?

You don't have to like everybody and everything that they believe in and everything they stand for.

But I've struck up a great friendship, for example, with Tucker Carlson.

sweetest guy in the world and a great supporter of mine and Judge Napolitano.

It's a love fest every time the two of us get together.

And I realized that, you know, this thing, this political system we have, it's antiquated.

It doesn't work.

You have to engage with the individual.

Like, I never thought that I would be agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene on some of these civil liberties issues.

Right.

Or Thomas Massey or Bernie Sanders, for that matter.

But I've realized that I've got to I've got to stand up for what's right, not what the DNC happens to think what's right or some politician that I used to think I had respect for thinks is right.

A couple of nights before I left for prison, the director, the former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, who later became the deputy director for operations and was very close to Brennan.

He was the DDO when Brennan was the director of the CIA.

He tweeted at me and he said, don't drop the soap with a laughing emoji.

I gave myself a couple hours to cool off, and then I texted back, and I said, Jose, I'm on the right side of history, and you are not.

And that gave me such peace.

I knew I could go to prison, survive this just fine, and come out and still make an impact.