I guess everyone can put the #fakenews hashtag away for a while, eh? Yesterday, the White House had nat-sec advisor H.R. McMaster issue a broad but unspecific denial after the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump had blurted out highly classified intel to the visiting Russian delegation last week. Rex Tillerson followed suit and the White House communications team issued a terse denial before heading behind closed doors for a meeting.
This morning, as what seems to be a developing pattern, Trump took to Twitter and made hash of the hashtag from his supporters, as well as of White House communications strategy:
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Er … why not just say this last night? Why put McMaster in front of a podium to issue a denial if Trump was going to admit it anyway? McMaster’s credibility is one of the assets the White House has to make people comfortable with Trump and his nat-sec policies. They just threw it away for a 12-hour head start on a Trump reversal. It will be interesting to see whether McMaster sticks around after this, or whether he takes enough offense to leave the post. And if he does leave, it will be even more interesting to see who’d want to fill it after this episode.Read the rest from Ed Morrissey HERE.
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