Because he definitely was NOT lying yesterday.
Actually, it appears MacMaster isn’t actually denying that Trump revealed information that was, until that moment, classified. He’s just saying Trump made the right decision to share that information with the Russians.
“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 he’s engaged, … It is wholly appropriate for the president to share whatever information he thinks is necessary to advance the security of the American people. That’s what he did.”
So he’s just saying it was relevant to the conversation, and is the kind of information that is often shared with other countries. And he’s defending Trump’s decision to share the information in this meeting. But this does not contradict the central claim of the Washington Post story, which is that Trump shared intelligence which was, up to that moment, classified.
No. The “central claim” of the WaPo story was that such sharing (which is a regular thing that happens when US officials talk to foreign representatives) was in this case inappropriate. Which McMaster, Powell, and Tillerson denied unequivocally.
The take from Leon Panetta:
I especially agree with him here:
I’m glad, now Bibi can wail and gnash his teeth ruing the day that Obama left office.
And how does the foreign government which supplied us with that intel under the condition that we keep it to ourselves feel about it?
Do you think that they will feel it is appropriate? Do you think that they will continue to share intel with us?
How much damage did trump do to our credibility and information gathering capabilities with his little brag?
You keep getting hung up on this “not illegal” thing, which is not what we are saying. We are saying that his actions harmed our country, to which you do not disagree, you just say, “but, he harmed our country legally.”
Who is more qualified to figure that out. Sec. of State and National Security Advisor or WaPo and its “anonymous sources”?
And what exactly are Trump’s people going to say?
“Yes, Trump flapped his lips, and damaged the credibility of our Intel services. Now countries are less likely to share information with us.”
No, their job at this point is to contain the damage as much as possible. By lying out of their asses, if necessary. In some ways, I don’t blame them for doing this. They are trying their best to limit the damage that the idiot, loose-lipped, child-man of a president just created.
The phrase was “Clinton derangement syndrome” and was in reference to how Clinton (Bill) could do no wrong in the eyes of the card-carrying liberals in Eliteville.
Yeah, good luck with that. He seems to prefer R-sycophants, and the few adult Rs that are in DC get pushed aside.
None of the above, actually, that would be the foreign govt (Israel is what I hear) to figure out.
The sec of state and the NSA are making excuses for trump’s blunder, even they admit that there was no conversation or analysis beforehand, but that trump just told the russians with no warning to either of them, or to our intelligence agencies, and certainly not to the Israeli agencies that will no longer be supplying us with intel.
WaPo just reported on it.
The Russian Oil CEO or the guy who replaced the Russian General - is there a third option? Can we just ask Putin what happened?
As noted, you are relying in his immediate opinion, not what others involved in intelligence reported. And we should remember that in the Watergate scandal Deep Throat was found later to be the number 2 FBI man Mark Felt.
You can try to dismiss the WaPo anonymous sources, but history is not on your side.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/white-house-staff.html?_r=0
Yeah, that’s not a reassuring defense at all.
So they’re saying he’s too stupid to fuck up? Not so sure. I think he’s too stupid to fuck up deliberately and intentionally, but he’s plenty stupid enough to do it unintentionally while **intending **to impress his Russian friends with how important he is.
No, they’re saying he’s too stupid to have remembered anything remotely top secret.
From now forward, Trump’s security briefings should consist of a puppet show, followed by a nice bowl of ice cream (two scoops!) and a nap.
Right. That’s why White House counterterrorism personnel called the CIA and NSA right after the meeting to let them know what happened. Because it was fine. Yeah, that makes sense.
I can see that.
A puppet show and Ice Cream!! (Two scoops, even!)
Now I wanna be president.