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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMcMaster: Trumps sharing of sensitive intelligence with Russia was wholly appropriate
President Trump's national security adviser said Tuesday that the president's decision to reveal highly classified information during a meeting with Russian officials last week was "wholly appropriate" the latest attempt by the White House to contain the explosive disclosure that Trump potentially jeopardized a crucial intelligence source on the Islamic State.
H.R. McMaster, the president's top security adviser, repeatedly described the president's actions in a press briefing just a day after a Washington Post story revealed that Trump had shared deeply sensitive information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during an Oval Office meeting last week.
"In the context of that discussion, what the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom hes engaged," McMaster said. "It is wholly appropriate for the president to share whatever information he thinks is necessary to advance the security of the American people. Thats what he did."
McMaster refused to confirm whether the information the president shared with the Russians was highly classified. However, because the president has broad authority to declassify information, it is unlikely that his disclosures to the Russians were illegal as they would have been had just about anyone else in government shared the same secrets. But the classified information he shared with a geopolitical foe was nonetheless explosive, having been provided by a critical U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so delicate that some details were withheld even from top allies and other government officials.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/16/trump-acknowledges-facts-shared-with-russian-envoys-during-white-house-meeting/?utm_term=.4cf79bb5583f&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation&wpmk=1
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Right?
riversedge
(70,182 posts)Zoonart
(11,845 posts)we will all wear our underwear on the outside.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)They needed something over the top to counterweight the gravity of the litany of impeachable offenses in the last week alone.
We should remain focused on the impeachable Obstruction of Justice counts and the indictments.
Trump's New Impeachable Offenses: Obstruction of Justice, Conspiracy, Abuse of Power
EXCLUSIVE: Sealed Indictment granted against Donald Trump
Phoenix61
(17,000 posts)But not anymore. He obviously has drank the kool-aid.
onethatcares
(16,165 posts)anyone of these assholes say "President Obama had the same right and privilege"