Press Secretary Kyleigh Mcenany definitely struck a nerve on Monday defending President Trump and torched the New York Times’ Intel Story.
On Sunday the New York Times ran a story claiming that Putin’s was paying money to the Taliban to take out American troops:
American officials said the Russian plot to pay bounties to Taliban fighters came into focus over the past several months after intelligence analysts and Special Operations forces put together key pieces of evidence.
One official said the seizure of a large amount of American cash at one Taliban site got “everybody’s attention” in Afghanistan. It was not clear when the money was recovered.
Two officials said the information about the bounty hunting was “well known” among the intelligence community in Afghanistan, including the C.I.A.’s chief of station and other top officials there, like the military commandos hunting the Taliban. The information was distributed in intelligence reports and highlighted in some of them.
The assessment was compiled and sent up the chain of command to senior military and intelligence officials, eventually landing at the highest levels of the White House. The Security Council meeting in March came at a delicate time, as the coronavirus pandemic was becoming a crisis and prompting shutdowns around the country.
One of the most notable things missing from this article is the sourcing, they didn’t even say, their source was “high ranking official within the Intelligence Community who were not cleared to talk about the matter.” All the New York Times said was their source was “American officials.”
On Monday, during the White House press conference Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany torched the report and the New York Times. She said that the President is only briefed on confirm intelligence and then torched the New York Times.
.@PressSec just Demolished the @NYTimes 🔥 pic.twitter.com/091FfWUc4I
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 29, 2020
You could tell she struck a nerve because after the press conference members of the media were whining like toddlers.
When a public servant thinks she’s supposed to be a right-wing media critic: https://t.co/AZn0sVicHR
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 29, 2020
Fun to watch @PressSec say that Trump, who tweets misinfo and conspiracy theories all the time, is only being given a diet of verified info. https://t.co/GNcPDS9HwS
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 29, 2020
According to CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge, the allegations never made it to the President’s daily brief, because so far – as of the writing of this post – the intelligence doesn’t exist.
DEVELOPING: A senior intel official tells @CBSNews the GRU/Taliban bounty allegations were not contained in the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) which is the highly classified, daily summary of national security issues delivered to the President, key cabinet secretaries + advisers..
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) June 28, 2020
talks with the Taliban, intel about a GRU operation involving the Taliban, targeting US forces would have risen to the level of inclusion in the PDB. @CBSNews
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) June 28, 2020
