Yesterday, Donald Trump’s national security advisor H.R. McMaster told America that the reports about Trump leaking classified info to the Russians were fake. That seems to have been a lie. But hopefully it will all get straightened out during today’s live press briefing.
You can watch the livestream of the McMaster press briefing on YouTube. It’s scheduled to start at 11:30am Eastern time, 8:30am Pacific time, and 6:30pm Moscow time. It’s already late, but it could start at any minute.
Update 11:48am ET: The press conference just started and McMaster is opening with a statement about Trump’s trip later this week to the Middle East.
“There’s nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the American people. The story that came out tonight, as reported, is false. The president and the foreign minister [Sergey Lavrov] reviewed a range of common threats to our two counties, including threats to civil aviation,” McMaster told reporters last night.
But we’ll see if he sticks to that version of events.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s daily briefing has been made into an off-camera briefing today, which is strange. So whatever McMaster says publicly in just a short while will be the face of this latest scandal.
Update 11:55am ET: McMaster doesn’t back down from his characterization that yesterday’s story was false.
"I stand by my statement that I made yesterday," McMaster says, adding @POTUS did not say anything inappropriate or violated nat'l security. pic.twitter.com/UPAIbQlX0y
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 16, 2017
McMaster: "What the President discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate." pic.twitter.com/YEioCDPJ3w
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 16, 2017
McMaster says he is "not going to be the one to confirm" that Trump shared intelligence from a foreign partner with Russia
— Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) May 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/embed/status/864510198240743424
McMaster won't deny that Trump shared classified info with the Russians pic.twitter.com/u5onW33dnP
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 16, 2017
Not sure how many ppl noticed but McMaster just confirmed that Bossert reached out to CIA+NSA, as WaPo reported. Guess story not 100% false.
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) May 16, 2017
McMaster seems to say that POTUS decided to share intel with the Russians on the fly, "in the context of the conversation"
— David S. Joachim (@davidjoachim) May 16, 2017
Did he reveal a city? McMaster: "It was nothing you would not know from open source reporting."
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/embed/status/864511440723509248
https://twitter.com/embed/status/864511478656905218
White House was switched tactics on the WashPost story:
YESTERDAY: Story is false
TODAY: Story is true, Trump conduct "wholly appropriate"
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 16, 2017
McMaster wants government to "take a look at how this leak occurred." pic.twitter.com/920oEBfJ7z
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 16, 2017
McMaster: "The president wasn’t even aware of where this information came from. He wasn’t briefed on the source."
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) May 16, 2017
