- Former national security adviser Susan Rice said Sunday that the Trump administration’s narrative about Russia’s rewards plan doesn’t add up.
- “I don’t buy this story that [Trump] He was never informed, “Rice said in an interview with Andrea Mitchell on NBC’s” Meet the Press, “who served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama between 2013 and 2017.
- “We have a president who is doing the orders of our arch enemy,” Rice said. “And he’s surrounded by flatterers and weaklings who aren’t doing their job.”
- Russia allegedly paid rewards to Taliban-linked militants for killing US troops in Afghanistan. The White House has claimed that Trump never received intelligence information, but recent reports suggest otherwise.
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Former national security adviser Susan Rice called on the Trump administration on Sunday for Russia’s rewards plan, accusing President Donald Trump of making “our arch enemy order.”
The former Obama administration adviser rejected the White House’s claim that President Donald Trump never received intelligence information suggesting that Russia was paying rewards to Taliban-linked militants for killing US troops in Afghanistan.
“I don’t buy this story that [Trump] He was never informed, “Rice said in an interview with Andrea Mitchell on NBC’s” Meet the Press. “
“I think more than a year ago … my successor, John Bolton, would have entered the Oval Office directly, as I would have done, and informed the president of this intelligence,” Rice added.
—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 5, 2020
Trump was briefed on intelligence by Bolton in March 2019, according to a recent Associated Press report, and information about Russia’s alleged rewards plan was also included in the president’s daily briefing in late February this year.
The information on the plot was obtained from the interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals, according to a report by The New York Times, which was reinforced by electronic data intercepted by US officials showing large financial transfers between the Russian military intelligence agency. and an account linked to the Taliban. . The White House has received no known response to the alleged Russian plot.
‘None of this adds up’
The Trump administration played down intelligence, dismissed intelligence reports as unfounded, and repeatedly said the president was never informed about it.
Trump has suggested that the intelligence is “Fake News,” despite the White House saying last week that the President has been “fully informed” on the matter. The administration has also been briefing members of Congress on intelligence.
President Donald Trump had his photo taken at the San Juan Episcopal Church with Attorney General Bill Barr, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany during ongoing protests by racial inequality on June 1, 2020.
Tom Brenner / Reuters
Trump has earned a reputation as a president who is reluctant to detail and does not pay attention or read reports. Critics also accused him of behaving in a subordinate manner to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and CNN recently reported that Trump’s angry reactions to intelligence warnings about Russia led his national security team to inform him less and less about related threats. with Russia to the USA.
In this regard, Mitchell asked Rice on Sunday why Trump did not raise the issue with Putin during six phone calls that took place after February 27, when the information was included in the president’s daily briefing.
“None of this adds up,” Rice said. “It appears that we have a president who is doing the orders of our arch enemy. And he is surrounded by flatterers and weaklings who are not doing their job.”
Rice said the president’s advisers do not have the confidence to “provide the president with the difficult messages he needs to hear.”
