Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt defended President Donald Trump amid reports that a Russian military agency put a bounty on the heads of American troops and that he ignored it. Earhardt excused the president, saying not all presidents “read all of their briefings.”
“The president has to make decisions based on intel that’s in front of him, and if he is not briefed on it then he doesn’t know about it,” Earhardt said. “If he is briefed on it, then he can act on it. All presidents don’t read all of their briefings.”
You can watch footage of Earhardt’s remarks below.
"Fox & Friends" host Ainsley Earhardt on Tuesday justified President Trump's inaction on Russian bounty intelligence in spite of reports that he received written assessment on the issue saying, "All presidents don't read all of their briefings." pic.twitter.com/I2I95qANZ3
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Earhardt’s defense comes after White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the “veracity” of the reports “continue to be evaluated,” even after the president  insisted that “intel just reported to me they did not find this info credible, and therefore didn’t report it to me.”
“There is no consensus within the intelligence community on these allegations and in effect, there are dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community with regards to the veracity of what’s being reported, and the veracity of the underlying allegations continue to be evaluated,” she said.
Several sources within the intelligence community, including David Priess, a former CIA officer who authored The President’s Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America’s Presidents, have disputed that assertion.
“This is exactly the kind of thing that the President’s Daily Brief was created for, to make sure that the President had the most up-to-date analysis and assessment of what is almost always uncertain intelligence. You don’t put things in the President’s Daily Brief only when they are completely corroborated and verified,” Priess told CNN.
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
