White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany addressed a flurry of questions on Monday about President Donald Trump’s head-scratching response to recent news reports that the Russian government paid bounties to Afghan militants who killed American troops.
But while making her case, McEnany appeared to contradict Trump on two key points, and also offered explanations about intelligence-gathering that didn’t make sense to seasoned experts.
Did Trump know?
In a Twitter post Sunday night, Trump said, «Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or (Vice President Mike Pence).» The post appeared to confirm that Trump had spoken with US intelligence officials and they reported to him that they had determined that the allegations about Russian bounties were not credible.
But McEnany said Monday that Trump «has not been briefed on this matter.» Her denial raised immediate questions, considering reports that US officials had briefed their British counterparts.
She also said the US government is still determining the veracity of the underlying intelligence, which undercuts Trump’s suggestion that US intelligence agencies had already deemed it unreliable.
