As the liberal media continues to push the narrative that President Donald Trump disclosed classified information to Russian officials, his national security adviser is coming to his defense — and he just put the unfair mainstream media in their place, declaring their biased reports as totally “false.”
Facing down the White House press, H.R. McMaster reiterated that he believed The Washington Post report was “false,” saying, “I stand by my statement that I made yesterday.”
He then slammed the media for their unfair reporting, saying the “real issue” is that these kind of leaks are putting the U.S. National Security at risk.
McMaster insisted Tuesday that Trump’s revelations to Russian officials about the terrorist threat from the Islamic State group were “wholly appropriate” and amounted to a routine sharing of information.
He added that none of the U.S. officials present for the president’s Oval Office meeting with the Russian foreign minister last week “felt in any way that that conversation was inappropriate.”
Trump himself claimed the authority to share “facts pertaining to terrorism” and airline safety with Russia, saying in a pair of tweets he has “an absolute right” as president to do so.
Insiders say the classified data that was allegedly shared had to do with the United States’ electronic ban on certain international flights — and the information disclosure was meant to help stop ISIS terror plots.
McMaster, in the White House briefing, said: “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 is engaged.”
On Monday, McMaster told reporters: “The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.”
He cast some of Trump’s revelations as information that was available from publicly available “open-source reporting” and added that the president did not know the precise source of the intelligence he had shared, suggesting that Trump could not have compromised confidential sources.
The Kremlin dismissed the reports as “complete nonsense.”
Trump said in his tweets, “I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining … to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.