The Pentagon Was “Pounding Down the Door” to Get Trump To Respond to Russian Bounties on U.S. Soldiers

Pentagon officials tried desperately to get President Donald Trump to do something about Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers. That’s according to The Washington Post‘s David Ignatius.

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Ignatius spoke to MSNBC’s Morning Joe program on Monday. He said the Pentagon had tried to get the President to act but he had failed to do so,

“Based on my reporting trying to confirm The New York Times’ excellent story it’s clear in late March you had senior U.S commanders, senior civilian intelligence officials, in effect pounding on the door of the White House saying we need to do something about this,” Ignatius said.

“We need to come to a conclusion about what damage the Russian program is doing, we need to reassess our programs in Afghanistan and they couldn’t get an answer.”

“To this day there’s not an answer, there’s not a real response” he said.

“Was this because the President was briefed and did nothing or because he wasn’t briefed because people were afraid to give him bad news and kept it to themselves? I don’t know.”

“But it almost doesn’t matter in terms of the breakdown in terms of the way the government is supposed to work.”

“In some ways, it’s almost worse the department didn’t tell him, ‘Mr. President while you’re encouraging Russia to rejoin the G8, we should mention Russia is putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers.’ If they didn’t tell him that, it’s a stunner.”

President Trump has denied he knew about Russia offering bounties for the deaths of U.S. soldiers. He’s also claimed the story isn’t credible.

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Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media