White House: Trump Never Informed Of Russian Bounties

The White House continues to deny President Trump had any information on an alleged Russian bounty offer targeting U.S. troops in Afghanistan. NBC's Tracie Potts reports.

(NBC News) The White House continued to push back Monday on reports that President Trump failed to act on intelligence reports that Russian intelligence agents in Afghanistan offered bounties on U.S. troops.

“The CIA Director, NSA – National Security Advisor – and Chief of Staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.

President Trump tweeted over the weekend that “nobody briefed or told me,” Vice President Mike Pence or White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about the intelligence.

The New York Times, Which broke the story, reports that U.S. intelligence did include the information in the president’s daily briefing book and in a March inter-agency meeting.

“There is no way that intelligence of this nature would not or should not get to the President,” says former national security official Brett McGurk.

The Washington Post reports U.S. intelligence now believes the Russian bounties may have led to the deaths of several U.S. service members and critics are slamming President Trump and his administration for not acting to hold Russia accountable and protect American lives.

“Our troops need their Commander in Chief to defend them and in fact he’s done nothing of the sort and claims that he does not know,” says Senator Tammy Duckworth.

Other Democrats are questioning the president’s reaction to the claims that he was never briefed on such serious allegations.

“Where is the outrage from him that he didn’t know about this?” Massachusetts’ Rep. Katherine Clark asked.

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