The White House denied President Trump had been briefed on U.S. intelligence that reportedly determined Russia offered secret bounties to kill U.S. troops.Obama used to pull this "oh man, I just saw this on the news" dodge all the time. If Trump wasn't briefed then this is a major disconnect between the Commander-in-Chief and his intelligence officials. Let's have some closed-door hearings to hear from these unnamed officials.
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, issued a statement soon after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden castigated Trump for allegedly taking no retaliatory action.
"The United States receives thousands of intelligence reports a day, and they are subject to strict scrutiny. While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA director, national security adviser, and the chief of staff can all confirm that neither the president nor the vice president were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence," she said on Saturday.
If these GRU bounties extend back into the Obama administration, this story will disappear faster than the Tara Reade allegations.
Update: Former DNI Richard Grenell denies claims.
Another update: So does current DNI John Ratcliffe.
13 comments:
Oooh, it's just got to be Obama. He also left Trump with a broken military and zero ammunition, and no pandemic response plan. And Trump was forced to take Ubers for two years, until he singlehandedly rebuilt Air Force One.
Ian MacDougall:
"In my experience, this kind of shrill and frantic response—particularly from unscrupulous actors like Grenell—is usually a sign that the story is substantially accurate."
Peter Strzok's lover™ Lisa Page:
"There are only 3 possibilities here: It was in the PDB or briefed to him but he didn’t bother to read or listen; the NSC/CIA deliberately kept it from him; or he knew and didn’t care because he wants to have a “good relationship” with a murderous autocrat.
Pick your poison."
Senator Brian Schatz:
"Just to be extra careful this morning I asked my military/foreign policy staff if there is any context to this NYT story about bounties against American soldiers that makes it less explosive and damning and shocking. The answer was no."
Well, when you have speculation and anonymous sources, anything is possible.
I can't believe Ian MacDougall and Brian Schatz said those things.
Who are they?
The failing New York Times' fake news has already been mirrored by the hive minds at the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Fox News.
On the other hand...
Donald Trump:
"Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us........Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration."
("Everybody" = Trump, McEnany, Grenell, Ratcliffe, and the Kremlin. But at least Russia didn't pay for too many American soldiers' murders.)
Josh Lederman (who's he?) finds a loose thread:
"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which last night said Trump and Pence never got a briefing on Russia bounty intel, is declining this morning to say whether the intel was included in a written President's Daily Brief."
Retreating to a "Trump's not treasonous, just incompetent" defense this soon? For an anonymously-sourced piece of speculation?
Yeah, that should put this so-called "story" to bed. TOTAL EXONERATION!
What the unhinged Radical Left fails to understand is that the President was sarcastically joking when he said "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States."
I don't know if Trump was tougher on Russia than any other President, but certainly tougher than that pussy Obama.
He did expel those Russians...after the election.
The important thing is that you've found the way for "Unacceptable" to become "Acceptable."
Catherine Herridge:
"DEVELOPING: A senior intel official tells @CBSNews the GRU/Taliban bounty allegations were not contained in the President's Daily Brief (PDB) which is the highly classified, daily summary of national security issues delivered to the President, key cabinet secretaries + advisers.
The official confirmed the NSC has been doing “due diligence,” and going back through their files since the story broke Friday, and they have not found the “intelligence assessment” described in media reporting.
The official said the review is ongoing, but given current talks with the Taliban, intel about a GRU operation involving the Taliban, targeting US forces would have risen to the level of inclusion in the PDB."
In other words, the NSC can't even find evidence the allegations are anything other than vaporware.
Source said...
"Anonymous leaks are fake. I want to rebut them, but how? Eureka, I've got it!"
A senior intel official tells... the official said
Gee, what happened to all the braggadocio and pushback?
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
There haven't been this many crickets since "Peggy Sue."
It's gotten as quiet as Barack Obama in the fall of 2016, after Mitch McConnell told Obama he'd block any bipartisan statement on Russia's election meddling.
Heh.
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