PRESS secretary Kayleigh McEnany has slammed "rogue intelligence officers" for leaking against President Trump following a New York Times report that he knew Russians were offering bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, McEnany also denied reports that Trump ignores the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) and claimed he is the “most informed person on planet earth.”
Sounding off on The Times' publication of the leaked intelligence report, she said: “The front page of the New York Times is not the venue for discussing classified information."
“As a result of this New York Times report, who’s going to want to crop cooperate with the United States intelligence community?"
"Who’s going to want to be a source or an asset, if they know that their identity could be disclosed?” she added.
“Which allies will want to share information with us, if they know that some rouge intelligence officer can go splash that information on the front page of a major US newspaper?”
Aside from taking jabs at the intelligence officials, McEnany came to the defense of the president when asked if Trump read the PDB’s.
“The president does read and he also consumes intelligence verbally. This president, I’ll tell you, is the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats that we face.”
“You have Ambassador O’Brien who sees him in person twice a day, who sometimes takes the upwards of half a dozen calls with this president," McEnany added.
“He’s constantly being informed and briefed on intelligence matters, but I’m not going to allow the New York Times to dictate when we give top secret information and don’t give top secret information."
She argued that the leakers were “rough intelligence officers who are imperiling our troop’s lives.”
“We will not be able to get – very likely not be able to get – a consensus on this intelligence, because of what was leaked to the New York Times,” McEnany said.
Her defense of the president and offensive strategy came as Joe Biden criticized the president for not knowing about the intelligence report and not taking stronger action upon learning about it.
When asked if those intelligence officers were going after President Trump, she responded, “It very possibly could be. And if that’s the case, it is absolutely despicable.”
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