President Trump says he “never mentioned the word Israel” in his Oval Office meeting with Russian officials https://t.co/84ZCW64hcE
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 22, 2017
Somehow, someway, it’s only been a week since multiple sources reported that Donald Trump revealed “highly classified” information to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a private (except for a Russian state media photographer) meeting in the Oval Office. It didn’t take long for everyone to figure out that the “great intel” that Trump shared had come from an Israeli source. Then, amid calls for impeachment, Trump took off for his first foreign trip as president, and wouldn’t you know it, he just stopped in Israel.
Trump’s time in the Holy Land has already featured Melania being meme worthy and a visit the the Western Wall, but the real action began later in the day when Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was quick to say he never said the word “Israel” during his meeting with the Russians.
“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel … they were all saying that I did, so you [the press] had another story wrong.”
Now, for one thing, no White House officials had said that Trump said “Israel,” and Israel neither confirmed nor denied that Trump had given away their intelligence. The problem was that the information was so specific, it could be tied to a source easily. However, by mentioning Israel, Trump is pretty much confirming that the intelligence came from Israel!
If only there was a recording of that Oval Office meeting.
(via Vox)