It is the job of the national security adviser to give the president information and advice on matters affecting the security of the United States. It is not the job of the NAS two explain away or attempt to justify National security indiscretions of the president. Yet that is exactly what the president and his inner circle of incompetents instructed HM McMaster to do yesterday. McMaster is a widely if not universally respected soldier and geopolitical expert. But after yesterday, he will never quite look the same. McMaster is a soldier and as such he follows orders from the Commander-in-Chief as he did yesterday.
McMaster was given an impossible task. In a typical careless and impromptu fashion, Trump revealed to the Russians "code–word" intelligence. That designation means it was received from the intelligence Service of another country and cannot be shared without express approval of that country. That was not obtained.
McMaster stated that the new York Times article was wrong or false because the Trump disclosure did not reveal sources or methods nor did it discuss any nonpublic military operations. The article never said it did. It only talked about revealing code word information. Thus McMaster made not so much a denial of the story but an attempted obfuscation. He then attempted obliquely to justify Trump's disclosure of code word information by stating Trump didn't know where the intelligence originated. Assuming this to be true, it begs the question "Why didn't he know"? Is it shoddy briefing? Or is it the case that Trump's attention span is so limited that he can only be given bullet point briefings without normal detail? Or did Trump merely forget while enjoying a moment with his Russian buddies? My money is on door number two but maybe number three.
Trump is now off to see the world this week and because of recent events will be groveling for stature. Lord only knows what he might trade for that. Keep in mind he apparently got nothing in return from the Russians.
It was reported this week that at least one fact checker has chronicled nearly 500 lies from Trump since his inauguration. Also, most of the corporate expansion and job creation that Trump is claiming credit for were announced in 2015. Finally, speaking of surrogates, kellyanne apparently has outed herself, disclosing her distaste for Donnie. I doubt we will be seeing much more of her.
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