WATCH: Here’s what McMaster said today in the White House Briefing on the Washington Post story

As you may know, McMaster answered questions from reporters today in the White House briefing on the Washington Post story that alleged that Trump both shared classified information with the Russians and thus jeopardized the source of that sensitive intel.

As I wrote a little while ago, I said that McMaster calling the Wapo story false was likely aimed at the very reason for the article itself, that Trump jeopardized a valuable source. He wasn’t claiming that Trump didn’t share classified intel…and I was right. He explains that below:

In this clip McMaster says that he can’t discuss whether the president did or didn’t share classified intel, but what he can say is that Trump’s conversations with the Russians was wholly appropriate and consistent with the routine sharing of information between Trump and any leader and wholly appropriate with regard to the expectations of intelligence partners:

McMaster adds something here that is interesting, pointing out that Trump didn’t even know where the intel came from because he wasn’t briefed on the sources and methods of the intel:

Lastly, I felt that this was a great exchange where a reporter pressed McMaster on whether or not Trump mentioned a city that could have given away the source of the intel and McMaster responded this way:

I must say after listening to McMaster explain all of this, it’s very hard for me to believe there’s more to this story than what he stated. McMaster is quite convincing and he seems to know his stuff.

As an aside, I just want to post this clip so you can see what a schmuck and a hack ABC’s Jonathan Karl can be:

As I pointed out earlier, Wapo didn’t just claim that Trump shared classified intel, but that he put in jeopardy the source of that intel. They made two claims, and the second is what McMaster addressed yesterday (which we know from above).

But Karl pretends that second claim didn’t even exist – even after McMaster said in this briefing that he was referring to the premise of the article and not every detail – just so he could frame a question to make McMaster look stupid or like he’s intentionally hiding something.

What a hack thing to do! Good job ABC News!

Ugh.


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