Senator Coons on the Trump Administration’s spokespeople, top officials: “We’ve seen too many senior leaders in this Administration say things that just weren’t true.”

Senator Coons: “I do think we need a special counsel. I think it’s important that we be reassured that the FBI investigation-that is a counterintelligence investigation-is continuing and is independent and is on a strong footing.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, joined MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson to discuss the Washington Post’s report that President Trump revealed classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office yesterday.

Watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7R5EWxvGAk&feature=youtu.be

Excerpts from the interview:

This is very troubling. It suggests, if true, that the President just doesn’t appreciate how risky, how dangerous it is to share classified information with one of our main adversaries, Russia, with their foreign minister and with their ambassador, specifically about a highly sensitive, highly classified source that has given us critical insights into ISIS, into their planning of potential future attacks against the United States. The story as reported suggests that the information that was shared by the President would allow the Russians, and their allies, the Assad regime in Syria and Iran to perhaps shut down this critical intelligence stream to the United States. That could put us at risk.

It has been publicly reported there were transcripts made of this specific meeting and then efforts made to clean up after the meeting. I think that should be reviewed promptly by the appropriate committees here in the Senate. 

A key part of our counterterrorism intelligence network is information that’s shared with us by partners, by allies, and in some cases even by adversaries. This is a vital piece of our national security infrastructure, and this incident just suggests that our President is probably troublingly unfamiliar with exactly what steps need to be taken to protect these vital threads of information. 

In [McMaster’s] statement he very carefully parsed what was and wasn’t said in the White House meeting, and I think it will undermine his credibility here on the Hill if it turns out that the initial reporting by the Washington Post, now confirmed by several other leading news sources, is in fact true.

The President apparently didn’t realize the damage that he might be doing, or, if he knew about it, didn’t care about the damage he might be doing to an absolutely vital ally who has shared critically sensitive intelligence with us. 

We’ve seen too many senior leaders in this Administration say things that just weren’t true.

I do think we need a special counsel. I think it’s important that we be reassured that the FBI investigation that is a counterintelligence investigation is continuing and is independent and is on a strong footing. 

The President could take an important step towards restoring confidence in the rule of law and the FBI if he names someone who is not an elected politician and is not a partisan, someone with long, significant experience in federal prosecution. That’s essential. I also think it’s important that we have a bipartisan vote to support this FBI director. 

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