Secrets and lies.

"I was in the room, it didn't happen"

That was H.R. McMaster denying that president trump revealed classified sources and methods to the Russians when they visited the White House, recently.

It would be easier to believe him if the American, and not just the Russian press was allowed access to the meetings that took place between trump and his Russian pals.

In case you have not been following the train wreck that is president trump, the Washington Post came out with a devastating story today about our president possibly sharing sensitive and classified information with the Russians:

"President Donald Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador to the US in a White House meeting last week, according to The Washington Post.

The White House scrambled to respond to the report Monday night, issuing several statements before sending H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser who participated in the meeting, out to speak with White House reporters.

 

"At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the President did not disclose any military operations that weren't already publicly known," he said. "I was in the room. It didn't happen."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement earlier Monday that Trump discussed a "broad range of subjects" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

 

"During President Trump's meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov a broad range of subjects were discussed among which were common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism. During that exchange the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations," Tillerson, who was in the meeting, said in a statement provided by White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

 

Dina Powell, White House deputy national security adviser for strategy, who also attended the meeting, said: "This story is false. The President only discussed the common threats that both countries faced," in a statement provided by Spicer.

 

According to the Post, Trump described details to Lavrov and Kislyak about how ISIS hopes to use laptop computers as bombs on planes.

 

"I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day," one official with knowledge told the Post described Trump as saying, before the President reportedly relayed specific intelligence.

CNN has yet to confirm the details of The Washington Post report.

 

H.R. McMaster had told the Post that Trump and the Russian officials discussed "common threats."

"The President and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation," McMaster told The Washington Post. "At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly." [Source]

 

After last week's events, how can we possibly believe anything coming out of this White House?

 

I have been trying to tell everyone that this man is dangerous. But, as is always the case, the usual suspects will circle the wagons and make this a political issue. 

 

It is not. We are way beyond that now. 

 

Our very survival might be at stake.


*Pic from dailymail.com

 

 

Days of dysfunction, chaos, and law breaking.

I hate to keep beating a dead orange horse, but team trump, you really have to get your s**t together.

Let's forget, for a minute, all the seriously wrong,  ill-prepared, and unqualified people the president has appointed to cabinet positions. That is bad, but it's not as bad as his minions breaking the law.

We will start with Kellyanne Polls, who clearly broke the law by promoting the sale of Ivanka trump's products on FOX VIEWS from the White House.

 “I hate shopping, but I’m going to get some myself today,” Conway, a special counselor to the president, said from the White House briefing room. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here, go buy it today.”

Whoops!

Even more egregious than one Conway did, though, is what transpired between the Russian Ambassador to the United States and trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn. (I hope that he at least knows what the START Treaty is.)

"Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, held five phone calls with Russia's ambassador to Washington on the day the United States retaliated for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The calls occurred between the time the Russian embassy was told about U.S. sanctions and the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had decided against reprisals, said the sources. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing internal U.S. government deliberations about the issue.


The calls raised fresh questions among some U.S. officials about contacts between Trump's advisers and Russian officials at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies contend that Moscow waged a multifaceted campaign of hacking and other actions to boost Republican Trump's election chances against Democrat Hillary Clinton." [Source]

Of course, the trump administration lied about these calls ever taking place, but now, thanks to good reporting, we are learning that they did.

The craziest part of this story is trump saying that he was not aware of what Flynn did. (If you believe that I have a wonderful antique bell here in Philly with a slight crack on the side to sell you.) Trump, who is always watching the news and wants to know everything going on with all of his people, did not know that General Flynn had conversations with the Russians? I need a break.

Finally, remember that  salacious dossier that contained some rather racy things (ahem ahem, golden showers) about our president that he called "fake news"? Well, as it turns out, it might not be so fake after all.

 "As noted by correspondent Jim Sciutto earlier today, multiple current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials have stated that an intelligence intercept has confirmed some of the conversations described in the dossier.

Sciutto did state that this doesn’t confirm the more extreme allegations made in the dossier but intelligence and law enforcement agencies now have greater confidence in the document’s credibility.

Sciutto also pointed out that when they tried to get a comment from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the story, Spicer told them “we continue to be disgusted by CNN’s fake news reporting.”' [Source]

Sorry Sean, given your administration's track record of late, we are riding with CNN on this one.