National security advisor H.R. McMaster tried to pass the buck on the question of Jared Kushner seeking a “back channel” of communication with the Russians before the inauguration.
But Spicer didn’t take it when he tried to pass it.
Initially on Saturday, McMaster referred the first question about Kushner to White House press secretary Sean Spicer. “I’ll ask Sean to cover that later,” McMaster said.
Spicer, who was sitting in the corner of the room, replied, “We have nothing.”
LOL! Great planning guys. Eventually, McMaster said this:
“We have back-channel communications with a number of countries. So, generally speaking, about back-channel communications, what that allows you to do is to communicate in a discreet manner,” McMaster said.
Except, that doesn’t really answer the question. Here’s why:
Once again McMaster walks on tiptoes to make sure that the thing he said is neither an answer to the question but not actually false. /1
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 27, 2017
“Hey, is this Jared thing a problem?”
“Well, backchannels in general are normal and we have some.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Non-sequitur. /2— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 27, 2017
This is being asked about a bank robbery and saying “Well, people do make unscheduled withdrawals from banks, so in general it’s normal” /3
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 27, 2017
For a guy of HRM’s brilliance, answering a *specific* with a digression on a better *general* point is pretty much playing AAA ball. /4
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 27, 2017
That kind of answer is Rookie Debating 101, in which you hope to God there is no follow-up. And it won’t work. /5x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 27, 2017
Nichols assessment makes a lot of sense to me – if there was nothing there, he’d say that instead of giving this non-answer. Trump is doing to McMaster what he does to everyone – sucking him dry of credibility and honesty for the sake of his personal advancement.
Read more about the WaPo blockbuster report here.