Barrage of questions about President Trumps to release tapes to embarrass james comey. Spicer refusing to discuss possible white house recordings and saying the president has been cleared. Does the president really have tapes and will congress subpoena to get them . And in range for a strike. North korea conducts its most successful missile test to date firing a rocket potentially capable of reaching the u. S. Military base in the pacific. Possib possibly carrying a nuclear warhead. Dictator kim jongun is said to have personally supervised the launch. So whats his next move . We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This is cnn breaking news. Breaking news tonight, President Trump reportedly revealed highly classified information to russias foreign minister and russias ambassador in a white house meeting last week. This according to the Washington Post which sites current and former u. S. Officials as saying that trumps disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. Fresh fallout from the stunning firi firing of director james comey. The search for a replacement is moving rapidly with at least eight candidates having already been interviewed. Some Congressional Democrats are tying confirmation of the new fbi director to a appointment of special prosecutor to investigate ties between the Trump Campaign and russia. Same issue comey was probing when he was dismissed. At the same time the white house is peppered with questions about the president s tweet threatening comey with alleged secret recordings. Press Secretary Sean Spicer wont address the issue, saying the president has been cleared and there is nothing to add. But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say the white house should turn over any tapes to congressional investigators. We are following north koreas most dwis tuisturbing test yet. The kim jongun regime claims the missile can carry a nuclear warhead. Experts say the test was successful and that kim himself supervised the launch. And democrats and at least one republican are not criticizing the administrator with going after suspects for the most serious charges in court. They say directive by the attorney general Jeff Sessions are accentuate in justice and criminal justice system. We will talk about it this hour with the head of the naacp, corn el williams brooks. We are covering all of that this hour with our guests including senator patrick lachey, and correspondents and specialists are also standing by. Lets go to capitol hill and Senior Reporter manu raju who has new information for us. What are you learning, manu . Reporter wolf, this information coming as major suprise to senators from both parties. Even members on the Senate Intelligence committee saying they had no idea about this report, saying that President Trump may have revealed classified, highly classified information to two senior russian officials at his meeting in the white house last week. Even members of the Senate Intelligence community, like richard burr, chairman of that committee saying he is still learning more information, waiting to read that article when he is back to his office. I talked to john mccain, chairman of Armed Services committee who said he is concerned about this report. Turns out, that President Trump revealed highly classified information to the russians last week. Wh what is your reaction . If its true, obviously its disturbing, but i think we have to find out more before i can comment. I cant just comment on every news story. But obviously, if it is not a good thing. Should be part of the investigation here going forward. Lets wait and see what this was all about first. Wolf, even some house officials are very tightlipped about this story in the Washington Post that President Trump with the Russian Foreign minister and russian am minister that he revealed classified highly classified information to russians during meeting and it has something to do with code word. The Islamic State that is all we know at this point in terms of what the Washington Post is reporting. We cant tell you wolf that within the last hour the National Security adviser hr mcmaster walking by reporters in the press area of the west wing and peppered with questions about he said he essentially told reporters to the effect of and he walked away and repeatedly asked white house officials National Security officials with some kind of comment or confirmation of this story we should point out at this point we have not received any kind of comment on the Washington Post report. If the president did reveal highly classified information to the russians during meeting which by the way, came under a lot of scrutiny. This is one day after he fired fbi director james comey and apparently about or at least some part about his concerns about the russian investigation. The optics of that meeting obviously were under heavy criticism at the time. But if the president also revealed classified information to the russians during Oval Office Meeting it is going to recall all sorts of questions and flashbacks to the campaign of last year when the president time and again hammered Hillary Clinton accusing her of revealing classified information through the private email practices and that use of her server and so, wolf, if this turns out to be true, and you heard john mccain there caution to manu raju that they dont have confirmation of that yet, this is going to create a whole slew of nasty questions for this white house, wolf. Stand by, jim acosta. I want to go barbara starr. She is working this story as well. Barbara, the Washington Post headline trump revealed highly classified information to Russian Foreign minister and ambassador. Whats the reaction . What are you getting . Well, wolf, this is very serious if its true and its more than just revealing classified information. We dont know if the post story is fully accurate. We havent confirmed it yet. But what it is suggesting is the president revealed information that u. S. Got through another country. Through some sort of ally. And when you get intelligence information from one of your intelligence partners, they and basically and Intelligence Services and because if you reveal what another country tells you without permission, they cannot have confidence. These countries have to have confidence that they can tell the United States what they know and that the president of the United States is not going to go out there and Start Talking about it especially to the russians. So this becomes very serious. It is the confidence other countries have that they can share with the United States and the president of the united sates is not going to go out there and Start Talking about it. It goes even deeper than that because what the president could not possibly be aware of is what the russians already know. If he shared this information with the russians, did something President Trump might have said to the russians give them knowledge about where the source of this information was somewhere in the world and could russians take action against that source based on what president of the United States told them . There are reasons that Intelligence Services operate this way, friendly Intelligence Services, western Intelligence Services and it has been a struggle and intelligence agencies in the middle east and those in iraq and syria throughout this region and it is very serious if this all proves to be accurate, wolf. Very quickly, barbara, the Washington Post, one u. S. Official familiar with this conversation, this Oval Office Meeting with the president had with the Russian Foreign minister and Russian Ambassador of the United States saying quote, this is code word, and tell our viewers what that means, code word information. Typically when something is described as code word information, very much need to know. You dont go trolling through your laptop, computer and find this kind of stuff. It is very tightly controlled. It is very sensitive. It is sometimes related to human intelligence. Meaning a human source meaning a spy that works for one of these intelligence agencies. That can be what this is all about. But it indicates that this is very much a need to know highly restricted information. The u. S. Intelligence community would have briefed the president on it. They would have no expectation that he would turn around and tell the russians, wolf. Yeah, one of highest levels of u. S. Classification. You reveal code word information potentially you can reveal the sources and methods of how this u. S. Ally reportedly got this information. Those sources and ledge odds could potentially quickly dry up if shared with an inappropriate element. Barbara, stand by. I want to get more on the news right now. Joining us, senator, i want you to react to this bomb shell in the Washington Post. I will read to you the first sentence in the article. President trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian Ambassador in a meeting last week. Current and white house officials saying trump disclosures jeopardize a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. Your reaction . Well, i dont know whether it happened or not. I think senator burr and senator warner, vice chairmen, will look into it. Rs i know they will look into it. But your correspondent described exactly what code word is. I know whenever im given something a code word, classification, we do it in a secure room. It is done very, very carefully. You never discuss it outside. Th the president is laughing when the foreign minister and Russian Ambassador, people that were under investigation for involving themselves in our election and continue to involve themselves here and elsewhere around the world. It was the most jarring photograph scene of any democratic administration. Only reason we have that picture of the president with ambassador is because a russian photographer supposedly from the Russian Foreign ministry really from task were told, official Russian News Agency allowed in and took the pictures. You see a smiling president , smiling Russian Ambassador to the United States. We only got a photograph from the white house official photographer the next day. No pictures with kysliak. You wanted to make a point, senator. Of course there is no pictures with kysliak because general flynn was fired because of his involvement with him. Attorney general sessions today come back and explain with the Senate Judiciary committee. You would think that nobody would want to be seen with him. We know kysliaks involvement with russia and with the United States. He is not here as a friend. And i think the russians are making a point to say, hey, there could be this guy who we rely on and it disturbed a lot of members of senate both republicans and democrats. Senator of the report in the Washington Post, says and im quoting now, trump revealed the city and Islamic States territory where the u. S. Intelligence partner detected this latest threat. Explain to our viewers how the russians potentially could use that information and how damaging potentially it could be to sources and methods of this u. S. Ally that shared this very Sensitive Information with the United States. Well, you know, we havent been shown whether the article is rakt accurate or not, but yo never disclose methods. You only disclose to a local group of people in the senate house. It is almost always code word clearance required. Which is as clear as can you get to have sources and methods. Our allies, they assume we will never release that because they may have worked for years to develop the source. They also know if the source is revealed, that source may have a very, very short life left. It is just never ever done. This highly sensitive code word information with the United States. If it does wined up in the hands of russians. Well, again, im not here to defend the Trump Administration, but i dont know whether the article is accurate or not. They have add lot of very accurate articles and i will wait until the Intelligence Committee looked at it. I will certainly get briefed by people whether it is accurate or not. But it would be almost inconceivable, that any president would allow something of that nature out, anything that would disclose sources and methods. Those are things we protect. I give you an example. Not anything to do with this case. But i know of cases where we have probably put somebody under deep cover for years. Waiting for that one time and they might have information necessary. We have very few allies we share that with. British and a few others. There are countries we normally dont deal a lot with to on occasion give us information that helps them and helps us. We dont want it turn on those. The United States cant be in every single place in the world every single time. If we cant rely on others to help us, then were in deep trouble. There are bigger questions here and that is, what is the influence of russia. Did they influence our election. Are they continuing to influence access of this country. If they are, then you know, god save us all. Because whether youre democrat, republican or independent, you better fear the United States of america. House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted this. Ill put up on the screen, its simple, individuals who are extremely careless with classified information should be denied further access to it. As you know, president , commanderinchief, he has the authority to declassify government secrets at his will. So should there be any consequences . Will you push for full scale investigation . Because the president can declassify even the most Sensitive Information if he wants to. The president wants to declassify something, he has that right, tell the American People he did. But then further explain why he did. And lastly explain whether that made the United States more secure or less secure. If youre going to be disclosing code word material to the russians, there is no way on gods green earth that you can say that that makes us safer because it doesnt. He is new on the job, as he points out himself, he had his career in business, not in government. Do you think President Trump truly understands the kind of impact these words could potentially have . He claims to be very bright and understand it all. Thats his statement. The. The article in the Washington Post reports the assistant to the homeland security, thomas boss ert, had his subordinates called for what is described as the problematic part of trumps discussion to be stricken from internal memos. If thats true, i assume that troubles you. You know, were into alice and wonderland situation here. Ive spent years in republican and democratic presence. I watch all of them very careful on these issues. If this is article is right, i heard condemnation from republicans and democrats. It also emphasizes again, we have to have a special council, a special prosecutor, to look into what is russias connection, both with the and ongoing. It cannot be somebody who says that they have to pledge loyalty to the president , not to the rule of law. This american wants a rule of law to stand up above anybody in government, of either party. The rule of law has not been respected during all of this. Senator leahy, thanks so much for joining us. Good to be with us, wolf. Were getting lofts more reaction from this bomb shell just reported in the Washington Post. Headline, trump revealed highly classified information to Russian Foreign minister and ambassador. We will update you on the breaking news right after this. L and packages. And its also a story about people. And while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country we never forget. That your business is our business. The United States postal service. Priority you heri think i might burst. Totally immersed weekenders. Whatever kind of weekender you are, theres a hilton for you. Book your weekend break direct with hilton. 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Saying the president jeopardized intelligence on the Islamic State. Lets go to jim acosta. So whats the reaction youre getting over there from official eats the white house . It is almost radio silence here at the white house. In response to this Washington Post story. If true, it means that president disclosed highly classified information during meeting he had last week with the Russian Ambassador, sergey kyliak and lavrov. He was already under criticism because of the optics of it. Now bb the National Security adviser to the president , hr mcmaster, did walk by reporters within the last hour inside the west wing. He was peppered with questions about this Washington Post story and according to reporters who were there if the room and heard hr mcmaster respond to all of this, the only thing they heard him say is this the last place i want to be. And then he surreyed away from reporters. At this point, the white house, National Security staff, wolf, had been given us any kind of response to either confirm it, knock down the report, comment on it, what have you. But we should point out wolf if this is confirmed to be true that president revealed a classified information apparently a code word according to the Washington Post that has something to do with the fight against Islamic State and that information coming from a u. S. Ally, that would mean that president contradicted himself. And levied against Hillary Clinton in the campaign when he pounded her time and again accusing former secretary of state of revealing classified information through her use of her private email server. Pretty difficult consequences for this white house, for this president who is already under fire over last week when it comes to russia if this holds up and is confirmed to be true, wolf. It is bomb shell after report. Stand by. I want to bring in jim sciutto, he is joining us on the phone. Jim, this is a bomb shell and now the New York Times is reporting something very, very similar, President Trump posted according to the New York Times about highly classified intelligence. And in a meeting with a Russian Foreign ambassador last week. Details could expose the source of the administration and manner in which it was collected. A current official said monday. What are your sources telling you, jim . Let me tell you this, woks, the news of these reports is rippling through the Intelligence Community. Like any other story related to intelligence. That the high mark, as you know, wolf, because weve been in [ inaudible ] with this administration and intelligence. I want to tell you one former senior u. S. Intelligence official told me about this if the stories are true. Quote, never before have i witnessed a senior Government Official so carelessly threaten intelligence sharing relationship. There are three elements to this that are raising alarms. One, just the simple fact that it is classified information. Shouldnt surprise anyone. Two, however, that it was reportedly revealed to in effect a hostile government, russia. This is adversary but by all accounts in Intelligence Community but three, and this is particular sensitivity, it affects a relationship with a sensitive intelligence sharing partner, partners who did not want this intelligence or even the nature of intelligence sharing revealed to anyone let alone as adversary. As you know, wolf, often times the u. S. Has intelligence sharing relationships with obvious partners, allies, the most prevalent being the five [ inaudible ] uk, australia, canada and new zealand. Longterm relations in effect, youre part of the family, you see the same intelligence. France, germany where you are often sharing. But allies that dont want it to be public. And this appears to fall in that category. I can tell you the reaction to this wolf is deep deep deep alarm. On a level we havent seen with other similar stories in this administration so far. Jim sciutto, stand by. Jim acosta is at the white house getting more information. What are are you getting there, jim . Just getting this information right now. I want to read to you directly what was sent to us from the White House Press office. Statement from u. S. Secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Forgive me for reading this as we speak here. It says during President Trumps meeting with foreign minister lavrov a broad range of subject were discussed among which were comment efforts and threats regarding counterterrorism during exchange the nature of specific threats were discussed but they did not discuss sources methods or military operations. This is again according to the statement by the administration from Rex Tillerson second of state. It goes ton say that they review Common Threat from terrorists organizations to include threats to the aviation. According to the nationality adviser, mcmaster. It goes on to say from hr mcmaster at no time were intelligence methods discussed and military operations were disclosed that were not known already publicly and this is from dina powell, deputy National Security adviser for strategy who also attended the meeting. This is the o closest we are coming to the white house saying they are knocking down the story. This from dina powell quote this soar story is false. President only discusses the Common Threat that both countries face. There you have it from dina powell, deputy National Security adviser for strategy, who also attended this meet pg. We should oipoint out wolf, tha we are reading these to you by the white house in just the last several seconds. But have you the secretary of state, National Security adviser and deputy National Security adviser essentially saying no, this is. The case. The president did not dises could a coat ward that had to do with ice. We will keep digging on checking on this. We will check out from sources to see if there is spin but you have a pretty declared fashion there from National Security adviser dina powell saying this is the story. They are trying to knock down the story, wolf. We will go through those words carefully. I know you are getting more information, jim acosta. Stand by. Gloria borger, let me start with you. Reaction from capital hill is pretty intense. Most of the top u. S. Entors, vice senator tweeted this a little white ago. If true, this is a slap in the face to the Intel Community risking sources and methods is inexcusable particularly with the russianes. Bob corker said if it is true, this is problematic. Stunning report from the Washington Post and similar report just posted by the New York Times. And a blanket statement by dina powell, saying this story is false. Right . Dina powell and others talking it down, and you have to ask the question and this is in the Washington Post story, senior white house officials according to the Washington Post after the meeting took steps to contain the damage, placing calles to the cia and National Security agency. The question has to be asked, why did they feel the need to place those calls if this discussion was pretty much pro forma a forma and a discussion of shared threats. If it was nothing more than that then there would not have been a need to place calls to give people a headsup, i dont think. And that question has not been answered. So clearly, what were seeing here in the stories in the post and times is a concern as jim sciutto was just talking about on the part of intelligence officials that the president of the United States effectively accord f according to the post bragging to lavrov about how great our intel is, spoke about some smings that he shou things that he should not said, that he is an friend of the United States and he shared this highly classified information as way to brag about how great our intel is. I still think there is a lot of dig tock done about why the administration felt the need notify these agencies about the president s conversation. Good point. David, i want your reaction to this. As you know the president tends to sigh whats on his mind. Just to be precise, if the president wants to declassify even the most sensitive intelligence, most Sensitive Information, he has that right to do so. He cant be charged with any crime but as you know a lot of u. S. Intelligence officials, theyve been fearful of a Development Like it for a long time if the stories in the New York Times now and Washington Post are accurate. Right. As you say, he can not only account president declassify anything but he can do it in the moment and so it is probably within his prerogative to do this. That is not the issue of whether or not he broke the law or not here. The issue here is, did he just severely damage a relationship with an ally who was trusting us with that information . Did he give information to our adversaries, russians hanging out in the oval office with him, something that should not have, they shouldnt be aware that United States has. Those are the questions about the behavior asked here. And whoe dina powell says that story is false or not true, whatever her quote was there in that statement, she doesnt say which parts of the story are. Because clearly you can sense in the tillerson statement and mcmaster statement, they are working overtime in the white house to say that sources and methods were not revealed here, were not exposing dangerously the intelligence stream that president did not do that. Even though he was clearly talking about some of this information about the Islamic State and their plans. Official statement of Deputy White HouseNational Security adviser simply says this, quote, this story is false. The president only discussed the Common Threats that both country face. Rex tillerson, secretary of state, said this. During President Trumps meeting with foreign minister lavrov, a lot of subjects were discussed, regarding counterterrorism. During exchange the nature of specific threats wfr discussed but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations. Jeffrey tu jeffrey toobin, your reaction it breaking news, how serious is this, jeff . It is certainly a potentially serious national and security problem. As you have said, it is not a legal problem for the president. He does have the right to declassify anything he wants including in the moment. Vice president has that power too. So what might get someone else imprisoned, the president has freedom to do. It doesnt mean it is a good idea. Doesnt mean if couldnt have problem National Security implications if he discloses something that is potentially information that could cause risk to people or organizations. But legally it is an problem. If i could just sort of state the obvious about the political aspect, it is not just any country he disclosed this information to, apparently. It is russia. A russia is the full crumb and all of it is based on the Trump Campaign and Trump Administration giving them favorable treatment. Potentially another serious example. Indeed. And statements from dina powell, the story, the president discussing Common Threats that both countries face, statement from Rex Tillerson, those words will be analyzed very cleesely. The suggestion in both the New York Times and Washington Post is the information the president shared with the russians potentially jeffrey could lead to understanding to undermining some of those sources and methods of how the u. S. Received that kind of information. Shutting it down down the road. People will look attes this statements clearly. The if the story is false, it says a lot of things. So it is not clear what she means by the story is false. Obviously i think gloria mentioned this. If this was a routine Diplomatic Exchange, why then, is the National Security agency and cia trying to clean up a mess . Thats the real question that if this was simply a normal Diplomatic Exchange there would be no need for panicking attempt to contain information and to comfort allies which is what the stories say is going on. That certainly is what these terrific journalists at the Washington Post at times and our colleagues at cnn will be trying to figure out in the hours and days ahead. For the Washington Post, cnn commentator and assistant editor at Washington Post, a lengthy story, clearly a lot of reporting going into this Washington Post story, New York Times, now for all practical purposes and matched what Washington Post is reporting. Youre getting these reactiones from white house officials and your reaction. So two quick points, wolf, in addition to everything that Jeffrey David and glory said which is one, my colleagues greg miller and greg jafy are the best in the business and this is an exhaustive report that they broke about this transaction between lavrov and President Trump. But i want it zero in on one detail wolf. Part of this resulted from President Trump sort of going off script of what was, he was sort of, you know, preset to discuss with foreign minister lavrov in this conversation as he has done in the past and that is part of what led to what were reporting him giving away this classified information p. The one other point i wanted to make wolf in general is that this is why it is so important for an administration to establish credibility with the media and public. When the administration has a reputation for misleading or inaccuracies or whether it is crowd size or whether or not a decision to fire director attorney from rod rosen stein and folks lose confidence in some of that information coming from the white house then when the white house comes out in a situation like this, and says, stories not true, you have to really parts that out finally and decide what they are saying as our colleagues here have said. Everybody stand by. Theres more reaction coming in from the white house from capitol hill. We are following the breaking news, the report in both the New York Times and Washington Post. The Washington Post first. President trump revealed, according to the Washington Post, highly classified information to the Russian Foreign minister and russian am ba ambassador during meeting in the old office the other day. You do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 509 on auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. On mattress firmness . Fortunately theres a bed where you both get what you want every night. Enter sleep number and the semiannual sale going on now. Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. She likes the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow only at a sleep number store. Oh, and right now its our lowest price ever on our temperature balancing i8 bed. Save 700. Go to sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. Take a look at this live picture. The white house says the president s National Security adviser, general hr mcmaster will walk out of the west wing, there you see, the door right there, walk over to the microphones and make a statement on these bomb shell reports now on the Washington Post and the New York Times, that president supposedly revealed highly classified intelligence to Russian Foreign minister and Russian Ambassador during their meeting in the old offival offi week. General mcmaster put out a statement and we will keep this shot up there. This is the statement that mcmaster put out a little while ago. President and foreign minister reviewed Common Threat from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation at no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations disclosed that were not already known publicly. That statement from general mcmaster. Other statement as well from white house officials. Dina powell, deputy National Security adviser saying the story in the Washington Post is false. Saying the president only discussed the Common Threats that both countries faced. Manu raju is getting a lot of reaction up there to these two reports now. What are you learning, manu is. Wolf, members of Congress Want answers. They dont know anything what theyve read in these reports saying they are alarmed, both republicans and democrats, and they are concerned. People like senator bob corker saying this is problem at ache endick dushin, senate whip saying this is reckless if this were true. A lot of members have not heard about this. Even members who sit on the Senate Intelligence committee. Richard burr said he hasnt even read anything about this other than whats in the report. He said he has not fully read in detail bp we just got a statement from paul ryan, house speaker, who said this, we have no way to know what was said but protecting our nations secrets is paramount. The speaker hopes, he said for a full explanation of the facts from the administration, note that came from a spokesman from the speaker. Even the Speakers Office wanting more information. Wolf, suffice it to say, people wanting to know more information and trumps not getting much support from his own party. Yeah. People want to know if in fact the president of the United States did reveal highly classified information to and the Russian Ambassador to the United States, sergey lee yak. I want to bring in your pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. What are you learning . Well, wolf, the key question here, if all of this is true that the Washington Post is reporting, theyre suggesting that the president shared information that came through an arrangement with a u. S. Intelligence partner, another country, if you will, another Intelligence Service that came into information. Heres the problem. The rules of the road are when you get intelligence from another country, another Intelligence Service, you dont share it. Its very confidential. Extremely classified. You certainly dont share it without that countrys permission. Why . These countries have to have confidence in the United StatesIntelligence Services and in the president of the United States that the us will keep its secrets. It puts their people, agents on the ground, their sources and methods of collecting intelligence, putting it at gave ri grave risk. If this happened, and geb we have no confirmation either way, the u. S. , especially President Trump, may have no idea what the russians already knew. So hes potentially giving them a huge advantage. They may be able, if its true, to marry it up with other pieces of intelligence they may have, that the u. S. May not be aware of. They can potentially locate the source of the foreign intelligence. They can put people, assets at risk overseas. Thats the reason you dont do this. Again, cant everyone size enough, cnn has not been able to independently confirm this account. But we can certainly explain to people why its so sensitive and perhaps why youre seeing some of the reaction youre seeing. Sharing intelligence with a third party when you got it from a partner is one of the biggest nonoes in the intelligence business. The white house says that the president s National Security adviser general h. R. Mcmaster with walk out of the west wing momentarily and walk over to the and make a statement on these bombshell reports. Well of course have life coverage of that. You know, gloria, over these past few months there have been several reports that friendly countries, friendly allies and their Intelligence Services have been occasionally reluctant to share certain information with the United States during the Trump Administration for fear it could be compromised. Youve seen the reports, ive seen the reports. Stories like this that have just emerged will simply reinforce that notion and that fear. Right. And angered intelligence agencies like the british, for example. Look, i think this raises the question about the president s ability to handle this kind of Sensitive Information and whether he in fact understands the consequences of even saying something that he thinks might be unimportant but he is in effect sharing highly classified information with somebody who, you know, who is not our friend. And i think that in the interest again of showing how good our intelligence is, the president may have been bragging or boasting to a certain degree. What the Washington Post hort states is that he shared this highly Sensitive Information that he should not have, perhaps without understanding the consequences of what he was doing. And largely the consequences to the people and the states that have supplied this information to us who would not want to continue sharing any intelligence stream with us in the future if they cant, of all things, trust the president of the United States not to share it with a country with whom we perhaps dont want to have this information. So these are the questions that general mcmaster has to answer. And, you know, again, i come back to the question of why was the white house doing cleanup on this if there was nothing to clean up. Why was the courthouse calling the cia and informing folks at the National Security agency that in fact they ought to be aware of what the president said to lavrov. I think these are questions that need to be answered. Obviously Congress Wants to get the answer to these. But i think the white house has to explain exactly what went on in that meeting. And one thing that we know did not get discussed in that meeting, wolf, as we spoke about last week, was the question of russian hacking. That did not come up, youre right. And were going to get once again were going to get reaction from the white house momentarily. H. R. Mcmaster, the president s National Security adviser expected to walk outside the driveway there at the west wing of the white house, walk over to the microphones and make a statement and hopefully answer reporters questions. Rebecca as we await general mcmaster to show up at the microphones, whats your reaction to these developments . Its obviously astounding, wolf, especially coming from President Trump who campaigned essentially on Hillary Clinton and the way he said she mishandled classified information. As these revelations during the campaign were coming out about her email server and classified information that may have been on it and sent on it. Donald trump said Hillary Clinton was unfit for the presidency as a result of the way that she handled classified information. Obviously she was never charged with any crime for what she did but this is something obviously of much greater gravity if these reports are true. Its not only an issue for donald trump but also for all of the republicans who supported him during this election, all of the congressional lawmakers who are going to be responding to this story within the next few hours and days. They also were highly critical of the way that Hillary Clinton handled classified information. This appears in the early reports that were seeing to be a much more serious breach of classified information, of course completely lethal for the president to declassify this information by sharing it. But the fact that he shared this classified information with russia will raise plenty of questions about why he did this, whether it was appropriate and from the reporting it appears that this was not any strategy on the part of the president , that he was merely bragging to the russians about the classified information that he is privy to as pthd. And the president will have a lot of explaining to do if that was purely the justification for sharing the information. All right. Justice correspondent evan perez is getting more snfgs. Back on march 3 st when cnn broke the story of the intelligence involving the middle eastern countries, we spent a couple of days on the phones working with u. S. Intelligence agencies. They had specific concerns about our reporting because we knew a lot of information that they were concerned was going to reveal classified information about sources and methods in particular. And how they got the intelligence that they had. And so one of the things that we did, we held back some of that information because of those specific concerns. Now this Washington Post story describes what the president mentioned to the russian officials there in the oval office is specific information that is essentially the stuff that they asked us not to publish. So we held some of this stuff back because the cia, because the director of national intelligence, and other intelligence agencies were specifically concerned that this information, fit got out would essentially reveal the way they collected that information, the sources and methods that they rely on, including from partner ally countries, Partner Agencies in allied countries. So the concern here that you hear from people were talking to is that essentially by using the language that the president might have used with the russian officials, he may have let them in on some of the secret things that the u. S. Intelligence agencies and the allies have been able to collect and specifically with regard to terrorist organizations in that region. Again, this is stuff that we were asked specifically not to reveal and we havent because of the sensitivity described by the u. S. Intelligence agencies. The Washington Post says something very similar. The Washington Post says its withholding the details, including the name of the city at the urging of the cities we did the same. Doing so would hamper the Intelligence Committees. Were getting this statement from the house Speaker Paul Ryan, quote, we have no way to know what was said but protect tekting our nations secret is paramount. The speaker is hoping for a full explanation from the administration. This is going to show you this is going to have ramifications politically beyond the National Security realm as well. Nowhere in that is a fullthroated defense standing by President Trump from speaker ryan, another republican bob corker quoted on the hill saying the white house has got to do something to bring itself under control and order. Its got to happen. What youre going to look out for now are as the republicans react to this, are they not standing lock arm with the Trump White House on this as they scramble to get this story in the right place. David, thanks very much. Our special coverage will continue. Were waiting for the president s National Security adviser h. R. Mcmaster to walk out and make a statement. Our live coverage continues with Erin Burnett Outfront right now. This is cnn breaking news. Good evening within im erin burnett. Breaking news. The Washington Post reporting this evening that the president of the United States has reveal top secret classified information to russia. According rgd to the post trump shared the classified information with the rush hand ambassador and the russian minister last week. This information involved isis. The report states it jeopardized a critical source of intelligence and were awaiting a briefing from the National Security adviser at those cameras. Deena powell