Sen. Cornyn: Intelligence officers did brief Trump on the bounty [View all]

[muriel_volestrangler]

Trump and the White House repeatedly denied Monday that the president had been briefed on the efforts against coalition forces in Afghanistan, which are believed to have led to the deaths of several U.S. service members. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump had not been told of the intelligence because it had not been verified and declined to say if the president had been briefed since news of the bounties became public.

But on Capitol Hill, Republican senators demanded more information from the administration and called for Russia to be punished if reports from the New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets were deemed accurate. The Republicans took a notably tougher public tone than Trump did, although they mostly avoided the question of whether the president should have been aware of the intelligence.
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Left largely unaddressed in many GOP senators’ public comments, however, was Trump’s role in the matter and what he should do now, with few questions from Senate Republicans on Monday about the White House’s contention that the president was left in the dark about an intelligence issue that had prompted a restricted high-level White House meeting in late March. Russia and the Taliban have denied the existence of the program.

“Well, I think the president can’t single-handedly remember everything, I’m sure, that he’s briefed on, but the intelligence officials are familiar with it and briefed him,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). “But again somebody’s leaking classified information and then trying to further a narrative that isn’t necessarily supported by the facts.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-once-again-face-questions-over-why-trump-isnt-tougher-on-russia/2020/06/29/c21f0c76-ba18-11ea-bdaf-a129f921026f_story.html

Cornyn's implication that this was a minor detail that you couldn't expect to lodge in the massive presidential brain is damn stupid, though. Even if someone thought the evidence wasn't good enough, any functioning human would remember something so central to their job.