One day after the New York Times bombshell report alleging that both Donald Trump and Mike Pence had been briefed on intelligence findings that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American troops and other coalition forces in Afghanistan, the White House is pushing back, denying that they were briefed.
“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 Advisor, and the Chief of Staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement on Saturday. “This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter,” she added.
So, Kayleigh will not say whether whether the intelligence was valid, just that the New York Times reporting was wrong.
For argument’s sake, let’s just say Kayleigh is telling the truth here. Trump and Pence were not briefed, well they certainly knew about it now and what did Donald Trump do today, he went golfing. There is no way out of this. This is a dereliction of duty on the part of Donald Trump. His highest priority as Commander in Chief is to keep Americans safe and it appears that he can’t even do that.
