Last week, Trump let Russian journalists into the Oval Office to film and photograph an interview with a member of the Russian government. At the time, pundits and former intelligence officials pointed out that this is decidedly not a smart thing to do as those Russians could have snuck intelligence equipment into the White House under the cover of the official visit and planted listening devices. It turns out, that such spy efforts weren’t even needed (although it’s still concerning) as apparently, Trump up and told them classified information without them even having to do any heavy lifting in the espionage department.
As The Washington Post reported, Trump supposedly revealed classified secrets to the Russians while they were in the Oval Office. To what extent is unclear at this point but multiple government sources have commented on the occurrence of such a slip of the tongue. To put it simply, the entire situation is not ideal, and as soon as the news broke the internet absolutely lost it.
The majority of people were in flat out disbelief that Trump actually did such a thing. Actually being the operative word, because recent events have shown that this exact type of thing is certainly in the cards with this administration in the White House.
John McCain probably revealed less to the KGB in 5+ years of torture at the Hanoi Hilton than Trump did in 5 minutes in the Oval. https://t.co/mlq6ndE9FE
— David Kochel (@ddkochel) May 15, 2017
I used to work on counterterrorism for the CIA. So just to provide some needed and nuanced context: this is fucking insane. https://t.co/S2E5zDZUGN
— Tom King (@TomKingTK) May 15, 2017
Look, I hate to be political on here, but in my opinion treason is bad. Sorry if this offends
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) May 15, 2017
McMasters denied something not asserted in the Post's reporting, but he didn't deny the damaging info that was actually asserted.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) May 15, 2017
I went home with a POTUS, the way I always do,
How was I to know, he was with the Russians, too.Never gets old, tweeps.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) May 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/drewmagary/status/864263877646839808
https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/864262799106506753
https://twitter.com/wilw/status/864259520398151680
Dear @realDonaldTrump: WaPo followed your advice & looked into the leaking of highly classified information. Turns out the leaker is you. https://t.co/heKrKbvs4N
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 15, 2017
After the news broke, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster held a press conference in which not only did he not deny the allegations at hand, but he denied events that the Washington Post never actually reported happened in the first place. A possibly-not-great-move that everyone picked up on immediately.
McMaster tells reporters outside West Wing that Wash Post story is "false… I was in the room. It didn't happen." pic.twitter.com/g1tSzWfYIC
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 15, 2017
Yeah…that is certainly not what he just did there. https://t.co/kAgJ7LFEUh
— Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) May 15, 2017
Why make a one-day story out of something you can turn into days of this, says this WH, always https://t.co/9vSaaNer0H
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/justinjm1/status/864256450662715392
McMaster saying "sources and methods" is a red herring. Article doesnt say Trump revealed sources and methods to Russians.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) May 15, 2017
guess this is why he isn't named P.R. McMaster https://t.co/EkY2uWxgGb
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) May 15, 2017
Then there were the constant reminders that Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP are probably not going to do anything about this despite the severity of the allegations and catastrophes that could be put into action because of such a mistake.
"Of course! Remember, I'm a craven opportunist with zero moral compass and I don't give a shit about the health of the republic!" https://t.co/7cZByTaxo9
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) May 15, 2017
Dear @GOP,
Country > Trump.
Sincerely,
America.— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) May 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/864258085426257924
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/864264350537842692
*trump takes a shit on the counter of a Sbarro*
PAUL RYAN: Guys, once the president poops on something, legally that becomes a toilet.
— Justin Halpern (@justin_halpern) May 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/internetraj/status/864247770156347393
But good news. Everyone in the White House is handling this scandal-in-the-making in the most responsible and measured way possible.
WH comms staffers just put the TVs on super loud after we could hear yelling coming from room w/ Bannon, Spicer, Sanders
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) May 15, 2017
With leadership meetings like that happening behind the scenes, everything is going to turn out just fine!