Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) demanded that the White House make transcripts of Trump’s meeting with Russian officials available to Congress after reports indicated that President Trump leaked highly classified information to the Russians during a meeting in the Oval Office, to which members of the U.S. press were not invited.
Schumer added, “And if the president has nothing to hide, he should direct that the transcript of the meeting be made available.”
Schumer laid out the reasons why what Trump did when he leaked highly classified information about an ISIS plot matters.
“If the reporting is accurate, in one fell swoop the president could have unsettled our allies, emboldened our adversaries, endangered our military and intelligence officers the world over, and exposed our nation to greater risk.”
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“According to the report, the president revealed classified information about a terrorist threat with the officials of a foreign government,” Schumer said in floor remarks sent to PoliticusUSA. “And the president didn’t share it with just any government, the report states he shared it with Russia’s government, a global adversary that has violated the sovereignty of peaceful nations, propped up dictators and human rights abusers, including Iran and Syria, and has been widely proven to have interfered in our elections and the elections of our allies in Europe.”
Schumer warned that if the report were true, and Monday morning Donald Trump admitted it was on Twitter, “(I)t would mean that the president may have badly damaged our national security, nothing less, and in several ways.”
Sharing classified information that was given to us by our allies on the premise that it not be shared with anyone “undermines key relationships and even more importantly, makes us less safe,” Schumer said.
Then Schumer had to take Trump to school, explaining the basics of our relationship with Russia, “We do not collaborate with Russia in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East for the simple fact that we have diverging interests. Russia, for example, has worked with Iran to prop up the brutal Assad regime. Sharing vital intelligence with Russian officials could allow the Russians to pursue or even possibly eliminate the source or figure out how the ally conducts operations, including any against Russia or Russia’s allies in the region.”
“Many of our intelligence professionals put their lives on the line every day to acquire information that is critical to our national security. That is critical to keeping Americans safe,” Schumer continued.
Then Schumer demanded the transcripts, “Given the gravity of the matter, we need to be able to quickly assess whether or not this report is true and what exactly was said.
So, I am calling on the White House to make the transcript of the meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador available to the congressional Intelligence Committees as soon as possible. The White House should make the transcript of the meeting available immediately to the Congressional intelligence committees.”
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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