Hollywood director Judd Apatow on Wednesday lambasted the acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a cancer survivor and the first openly gay man to hold a cabinet-level position, as a “corrupt bought and sold peon.”
“Maybe lose the sunglasses in your twitter photo you idiot. Make some attempt to not look like a corrupt bought and sold peon,” Apatow, the director behind the upcoming flick The King of Staten Island tweeted, referring to the 53-year-old Grenell.
Apatow’s tweet came in response to Grenell blasting House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for leaking a letter of concern about staffing changes within the intelligence community to the press this week. Schiff addressed his April 7 letter to Grenell, but the press got a hold of it first.
“His letter was sent to the press before it was sent to me,” Grenell asserted via Twitter on Tuesday. “These press leaks politicizing the intelligence community must stop.”
Schiff served as the chief inquisitor during the Democrats’ efforts to remove President Donald Trump from office earlier this year. The Democrat’s impeachment proceedings took place as the novel coronavirus was spreading across the world and entering the United States.
Harvard graduate Grenell is a staunch Trump ally and former Fox News contributor. He previously served a spokesman for several U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations under President George W. Bush‘s administration, reportedly rendering him the longest-serving American spokesman and political appointee at the international body.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, Grenell briefly worked as a national security and foreign policy spokesperson for then-Republican candidate Mitt Romney, making him the first openly gay spokesman for a GOP presidential candidate.
“He has served as a senior policy and communications advisor for public officials at the local, state, federal and international levels, as well as for a Fortune 300 ranked company,” the American Conservative Union noted earlier this year, adding:
Grenell served as the United States Spokesman during the world body’s most turbulent time. He led communications strategies on issues such as the war on terrorism, peacekeeping operations, the conflict in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation, Israel’s security, and the UN’s Oil for Food Corruption investigation, to name a few.
On February 20, then-U.S. Ambassador to Germany Grenell assumed the role of acting DNI, a move that excited conservatives, but drew the ire of liberals.
The left, including Congressman Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has been attacking Grenell for allegedly politicizing the intelligence community with personnel changes.
In his letter to Grenell, Schiff complained that the intelligence community chief is overhauling the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which is in charge of the U.S. intelligence community, without the authorization of Congress.
However, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station chief Daniel Hoffman told Breitbart News Saturday host Matt Boyle over the weekend that intelligence community officers have welcomed Grenell’s move to make ODNI more effective.
Grenell’s actions are “going to bring much-needed efficiency” to the “bloated” intelligence community, Hoffman proclaimed.
Hoffman, who has a combined 30 years of distinguished government service in the CIA and other federal entities, refuted Democrats’ allegations that Grenell is politicizing ODNI with the staffing changes.
As for Judd Apatow, he is one of Hollywood’s loudest Trump-bashers and regularly attacks Republicans. Just last week, the This Is 40 director said President Trump and Republicans are “murderers” whose actions have caused “thousands of deaths.”