Laura Ingraham Claimed WaPo Reporters Didn’t Seek Comment From McMaster… Despite His Quote in Their Story

 

Laura Ingraham appeared on Fox News Monday to provide a curious rebuttal to the bombshell report from The Washington Post alleging President Donald Trump “revealed highly classified information” to Russian officials.

The Post story claims that Trump revealed the information during his meeting last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. The disclosure reportedly “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.”

The meeting was attended by the president and the two Russian officials, as well as national security advisor H.R. McMaster, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy Dina Powell and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

During her appearance on Fox’s Special Report, Ingraham provided her best defense of the president, disputing the Post story and alleging that none of the officials present in the meeting were contacted for comment by the Post reporters.

“There were only three people at the meeting from the administration other than the president: McMaster, Dina Powell, and Tillerson,” Ingraham started.

“And my sources are telling me that The Washington Post discussed this, before they printed this, with none of the principles who were at the meeting,” she said. “They did not speak to Tillerson, they did not speak to Powell, and they did not speak to McMaster about the specific allegations they were raising.”

Of course, had Ingraham read the piece, she would have known that it directly quotes McMaster, who told the Post reporters that no “intelligence sources or methods” were discussed in the meeting, “and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.”

Ingraham also tweeted what she heard from a White House source:

In her Fox News interview, she asked, “How do you go on the record with this piece without talking to the principles who were at the meeting about the specific allegation?”

In a subsequent tweet, Ingraham clarified, saying she meant that none of the officials present at the meeting “confirmed” the Post story — a slightly different claim that contradicts even her previous Tweet, which remains posted in all its glory:

You can watch her initial remarks above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Aidan McLaughlin is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Send tips via email: aidan@mediaite.com. Ask for Signal. Follow him on Twitter: @aidnmclaughlin