President Donald Trump has spent a good part of the day trying to minimize the news about a reportedly damning whistleblower complaint filed against him by an intelligence official. During an Oval Office press availability Trump threw many different claims at reporters, claiming both that he had no idea what was in the complaint or which country’s leader it involved, then claimed his conversation with the country’s leader was “great” and “beautiful.”
Minutes later he was asked again about the whistleblower report, and if he had read it.
“No I haven’t,” Trump replied.
“It’s – I, I just tell you it is – everybody’s read it, they laugh at it,” Trump said, making a face as if to denigrate the report.
It’s unclear who “everybody” is, but if it to have been even widely distributed Congress would need to investigate, given only the Director of National Intelligence and the IG should have access to it.
He went on to call it “another media disaster,” despite the intelligence community inspector general – who he appointed – calling the whistleblower complaint both “credible” and “urgent.”
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