Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, is suggesting President Donald Trump had the right to know about intelligence reports suggesting Russian operatives placed bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
The co-host of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” Trace Gallagher, asked McCaul to explain what one of the intelligence agencies means when it argues the Russian bounties intelligence is “not valid” and “not actionable.”
McCaul explained when the intelligence came out, one agency had a dissenting view about the credibility of the intelligence.
According to McCaul, when there is a different point of view within the intelligence community, it is up to the briefer to make the decision of whether to bring it to the president.
McCaul said if the intelligence has a “low degree of confidence” it may not be actionable and he could see why they would not brief the president.
McCaul expressed his opinion of the intelligence and whether he believed Trump should have been informed about it.
“As I examine this whole thing though, I think the president did deserve probably to know that this was out there only because the timing of the peace deal with the Taliban itself that was going on literally two days after this presidential daily briefing came in,” McCaul said.
Watch his comments below:
McCaul noted the purpose of the relationship between Russia and the Taliban has been to defeat ISIS rather than to kill American soldiers.
He reiterated if this were the case, it would be worthy of the president’s attention.
The Trump administration previously claimed the president was not initially briefed on the matter, as IJR previously reported.
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Trump was not initially briefed on the matter because the claims could not be “corroborated.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also fired back at reporters arguing they were putting lives in danger by reporting on the alleged bounties, as IJR previously reported.
During her press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany reported Trump had officially been briefed on the intelligence.
