ftw. 
You can’t figure out why democrats would be sore about being specifically excluded from the information, NOT because Trump didn’t think the information was worth releasing to congress (since he did release it to congress), but rather because the deranged moron decided it would be a great way to exclude them while simultaneously accusing them of being traitors.
You can’t figure out why that would be annoying?
There might be an impasse if he thinks that annoying Democrats is a plus.
I am absolutely certain that he considers annoying democrats to be a plus, but that doesn’t mean he can’t acknowledge that they’ve been given a reason to be annoyed.
Of course, that would indirectly be acknowledging that the actions of the orange turd were obviously inappropriate, which could be construed as criticism - and a person who approves of annoying democrats wouldn’t want to criticize such behavior, would they?
Well, do you think congressional Democrats are traitors or not? If you do not, then of course it’s not a realistic fear.
How often in the past has the opposing party in the legislative branch intentionally spilled plans for an imminent military strike to the press in order to sabotage the operation?
Tacking on, this has clearly not happened.
But the closest analogue we do have are Senate Republicans sending that letter to Iran during the negotiations for the now defunct nuclear deal.
For the record, I don’t think the D’s would have.
That being said, consider it from Trump’s viewpoint: He’s the most polarizing president in decades, Democratic opposition to his presidency has been intense from Day 1 of his presidency, there are numerous Democrats calling for his impeachment, there have been numerous leaks in his administration already, it would be a (short-lived) PR triumph for him for al-Baghdadi to be killed, Democrats have traditionally been perceived as the more anti-war party, Trump knows many of his opponents wouldn’t want him to get a PR boost of any sort, there is no practical benefit to telling the Congressional D’s (there’s nothing they could say or do that would *help *the operation,) it gives some spiteful satisfaction for him to stiff Pelosi and Schumer this way, and if he can brag afterwards that he did not inform the D’s about the upcoming operation, he gets a big win in the eyes of his supporting base, who would perceive it as a “burn” moment that jabs the D’s. On the flip side, if he does inform the D’s, and one of them leaks it to the press, then Trump would be lambasted by his own supporters, and denied a foreign-policy triumph. With all these factors, why **would **Trump inform the D’s about the upcoming military mission?
The answer to the question in your thread title is still “no”.
All this just translates to “According to Trump’s viewpoint, fuck the national interests, what’s good for me?”
There is a whole branch of government and at least three media networks giving us Trump’s viewpoint 24/7/365, so I don’t think we need to waste any more time considering his viewpoint. This devil isn’t lacking for advocates.
I have this same question. Schiff gave a (rather unconvincing IMHO) response:
Also, Pelosi released a statement on the raid. The most relevant bit to this thread seems to be:
Can you explain why he told the Republication side of the 8, and also Graham (who I believe is not one of the 8), but not the Democrats? If congress doesn’t need to know, they don’t need to know, but if they do, then both parties should know, right? Obama told the 8 before the Bin Laden raid.
Because it’s the responsible way to run a country?
Look, I get that we’re talking about the point of view of a person I wouldn’t trust to care for my pet goldfish. But when asked why would the President of the United States inform key members of Congress about a important military strike involving Russian territory and ISIS Terrorists… it’s because that’s how you run a country.
Trump’s inability to do the right thing, simply because there is a (comically theoretical) downside to him personally, is WHY he’s a terrible president. Literally every decision is run through the “what’s best for Trump” filter instead of the “what’s best for the United States” filter.
I think your statement here is riddled with factual inaccuracies. Here is an article from the Hill - McConnell, McCarthy not notified ahead of Baghdadi raid
None of this would need to have happened if he’d just kept his fat orange mouth shut and stayed off TV. The announcement could have come from the WH as an official statement, corroborated and with additional details by the Pentagon, National Security and Intelligence officials.
Instead, the orange cretin decided he couldn’t live without the media attention and that of his adoring minion and cult followers. So he said dumb shit, again. Embarrassed himself, again. Opened himself up for contradiction from Russia, Pentagon, Democratic leadership and media.
Well done, President Fucking Moron.
So now you’re mad that he held a press conference?
Even if so, it’s the misplacement of deck chairs on this Titanic of a presidency.
Thank you for that correction. I appreciate it. It remains unclear why he told Lindsay Graham, who seems to be on no relevant committee, but that’s fine. I think that he should have informed the 8, if the event was important enough to trumpet the results, but here we are.
“Wow! Isn’t the Grand Canyon magnificent?”
“So you like looking at holes?”
BTW, here is some additional information about Obama and his decision to not notify the Gang of Eight prior to the OBL raid.
I don’t know why he chose to talk to Lindsay Graham about it after the raid either, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.