Off-Camera, NSA General McMaster Defends ‘Backchannel Communications’

‘What That Allows you to do is Communicate in a Discreet Manner’ 

Following yesterday’s report that Jared Kushner told Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that he wanted to establish a secret, backchannel line of communication with the Kremlin, National Security Adviser General H.R. McMaster told reporters that he isn’t concerned with such methods of communication. 

The comments were made to reporters traveling with Donald Trump overseas, given at the G7 summit in Sicily during a joint conference with Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn. As CNN’s Jim Acosta pointed out via Twitter, the White House offered Cohn and McMaster to reporters on the record, but off camera. Again:

According to The Washington Post, White House officials “insisted the briefing be conducted off-camera, preventing photographers or television cameras from documenting it.” They further reported that Gary Cohn defended Donald Trump’s evasion of the news media, citing his “robust travel schedule.”

Cohn, notably an ally of Jared Kushner, offered no comment on the reports. And while McMaster reportedly wouldn’t comment directly on the allegations facing Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, at one point deferring to Sean Spicer who advised “we have nothing,” the National Security Adviser pointed out that “we have backchannel communications with a number of countries.”

“What that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner,” McMaster said. “So I’m not concerned.”

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