russians to be a meaningful partner inside syria, and they end up doing more damage than good. they end up conducting themselves in a way that kills, hurts, and maims civilians, such that more, not less, people on the ground inside syria are pushed into the camps of extremists rather than to moderates. so, we have enough experience inside syria to understand that russia is not going to be a credible partner. and you are right that there is a reasonable way to use classified information in order to win new friends or influence adversaries, but that s not what happened here. this is a president who was trying to show off how much he knew in the context of that meeting and potentially, you know, did serious jeopardy to immediate u.s. national security concerns, as we are finding out today that some of our allies are already rethinking whether or not they should share information or rethinking what kind of information they should
understated it. it applies to this ally who provided the information to us, but it also impacts the way other intelligence allies see us and see our intelligence-sharing relationships. they ve long had concerns about donald trump as a potential president and now as a president, about his ability to protect information, his willingness to protect information, and what you see here is sort of the perfect display of the most sensitive type of information that can have real impact on americans lives, their safety. and there he is, the president, sharing it with one of our greatest adversaries. so, there really couldn t be a better or a worse example of the kind of recklessness that we now see in the white house. and i would just add that that s only the start of it. president trump is demonstrating a terrible lack of competence, and incompetence is weakness on the international stage, and i fear that our adversaries, including russia and others, are
he just put out a statement saying regretly, every moment that the president spent dlejly disclosing classified information to the russian was a moment he didn t spend talking to hem or trying to walk them away from the aggression they show. so a lot of frustration from both parties. not any senators, except for one i ve spoken to, coming out and overtly supporting the president right now. and i think we re in a situation where story after story, major story after dramatic story coming out and people are both frustrated, they re tired, and frankly, they want answers, kate. yeah. i mean, it s notable, phil, the change in tone from republicans who might say i don t have enough information yet to comment, to what you hear from john mccain in this statement, what you read, and he also calls it deeply disturbing and sends a troubling signal to america s allies. they clearly need more information over there, and a lot of folks do. great to see you, phil. it s only just beginning this mor
atlantic council. also with us, former presidential candidate evan mcmullin, a former cia officer. guys, great to have you hire. a lot to get through. one bit of information from jim sciut sciutto, jamie, that i found interesting, is following his meeting, his sources telling him that advisers after this meeting, advisers to the president, consulted the intelligence community to check on the classification level of the information that was discussed in the oval office meeting. you ve been in those meetings. what does that tell you? that tells me that they were really worried. i mean, there is secret information, top-secret information and then secure, classified information. that is highest level of classification, and often it s because if that information gets out, it can put people s lives in danger, it can undermine critical relationships with foreign intelligence services, with foreign governments. and so, to leak that kind of information or just to give it away so brazenly, esp
that? well, it could compromise the source of information, so that source could dry up or go away, or if it s a human source, it could be worse. if the source is a sister intelligence agency of a friendly country, that country could decide it can t trust the united states with information, or worse, that it can t trust the president of the united states with information. that obviously has very serious repercussio repercussions, and particularly if we re talking about information about a threat to americans posed by isis. so, again, i can t say whether these allegations are accurate, but if they are and certainly, the president s tweets suggest that he talked about something of concern here we immediately have to go into damage mitigation mode, find out what steps can we take to minimize any risk to our sources, and if the damage is to our allies, what steps we can take to reassure our allies that we treasure the relationship, we