The post story are accurate. Were not quite four months into the Trump Presidency and senator bob corker puts it bluntly tonight the white house is in a downward spiral. Global affairs analyst, david row and diplomatic analyst, john kirby. Good evening to all of you gentleman. What are you hearing from your sources tonight about this bombshell report . From myself and jake tapper, two former officials knowledgeable say that president did share classified information with the Russian Foreign minister, the russian ambassador. The information did not directly reveal the source of the intelligence. But intelligence officials tell cnn there is concern that russia will be able to figure out that highly sensitive source. There is some disagreement as to how far the president went. This intelligence relates to what is known as special Access Programs or s. A. P. Which cover some of the most highly classified information and is protected with unique access and security protocols. As you know, don, with intelligence often there are different views, different analysis. And what were told is that some are more concerned about the degree the president went with this information than others. But the concern remains, did he go far enough that russia could, based on this information, and the details, could russia conclude where it came from . In particular what partner of the u. S. The source the information, which would be uncomfortable. Whats the reaction from the white house . Well, the white house is somewhat unified, although their messaging is a little confused as to what they are denying. In general theyre saying this story is false. Lets listen on the White House National security advisor, h. R. Mcmaster. Theres nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the American People. The story that came out as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other seniors officials who were present including the secretary of state, remember the meeting in the same way and have said so. Their on the record accounts should outweigh those sources that are anonymous. I was in the room. It didnt happen. Thank you, everybody. Lets be clear what he denied. He said the president did not reveal the source and did not talk about any military operations. We are told by more than one source with knowledge of this meeting that president revealed sensitive intelligence that, based on that intelligence, they may be able to conclude where it came from. He didnt explicitly say the source, but that would lead the way for the russians to that source. And be to specific about whats in the Washington Post report, its reporting that he was boasting about inside knowledge of a looming threat from the Islamic State. Why was he bragging about Something Like that . Well, its the long tendency of the president to talk big and the difference between micking a sale, frankly, and being president. And this presents a real problem for republicans. This is again where his tendency to brag, to over state things, to frankly not tell the truth. Its putting more and more pressure on republicans on the hill, particularly those who care about National Security. That statement from senator bob corker, mccain, senator graham. This is a very serious issue for the republicans. This is terrorism, Islamic State and National Security and its a republican president whos doing this. And when Rex Tillerson put out a statement disputing this report but a Senior State Department official tells cnn that he didnt know about it. They learned about the statement from cnn and were left scrambling. As a former state department spokesman, what do you make of that . Its very unusual. I cant remember a single time working for secretary kerry or two prior to that where we didnt have a hand in it, it wasnt staffed, well coordinated, both within the building and across the river at the white house. So its pretty amazing. Ive talked to some colleagues at state. It looks like this was on real fast track. The white house specifically wanted to put out all three statements at the same time to look like a very Cohesive Communications approach and in the speed to do that, they didnt do all the staffing you would normally do with the rest of the building and at least the communications staff. I think this continues to speak to the dysfunction at the state department as well. Why would they reach out if the president didnt do what the report says . Its hard to say. Im kind of where jim is on this. Their denials are not full denials. Theyre simply denying things that storys never said. Why they didnt do a better job staffing this, again i is this an attempt to confuse the public that they may get confused by the details and think its a full throated denial of a that its not . I think its an attempt to get the temperature down on this. Its ironic. When you put your National Security advisor out in front of cameras, youre elevating it and even though the statement seemed to try to deflate it. So theyve already elevated it. I think it was trying to take the air out of the story as quickly and efficiently as they could. Thats another reason i suspect he didnt take any questions. Jim sciutto, before these reports, this meeting before the president and the Russian Foreign minister and ambassador was already raising red flags last week because it was a day after the president fired fbi director james comey. Which he later admitted was because of russia. He admitted in the interview with lester holt and a russian photographer was included but not u. S. Media. Are these the kind of optics Vladimir Putin wanted when he interfered in the election . You forget something that happened 72 hours ago but in the span of less than a week, president fires james comey. For he admits later the Russian Investigation, he wants to draw it to a close. Then he invites the Russian Foreign minister and ambassador, who remember its conversations with that ambassador that got his previous National Security officer fired michael flynn. Then he gives classified information to russia and this happens after an election where an Intelligence Community found russia interfered in the election process. All of this has to lets just raise those questions higher. To raise questions about why the president doesnt look at this country as his entire Intelligence Community does as a threat. And dont forget the attorney general reaccused himself from the russia investigation, devin nunes who had to step down from the investigative part of this russia. Every day there seems to be something. Were talking about classified information. The election wasnt that long ago, though it seems like ages ago. This candidate slammed Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign for her alleged handling of classified information for which she was never indicted for. He slammed her. Watch this. We cant hand over our government to someone whose deepest, darkest secrets may be in the hands of our enemies. I dont think its safe to have Hillary Clinton be briefed on National Security because the word will get out. We cant in the oval office who doesnt understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. And then he tweeted this crooked hillary and her team were careless in their handling of sensitive highly classified information not fit. How does this compare to what Hillary Clinton was accused of . The key words are not fit. There could be this huge dark conspiracy and somehow donald trump is in line with russia. Theres no proof of that and i dont personally believe it but its his temperament. He cant the reports he cant stand the criticism, that comey is talking about russia, so he fires him. Hes somehow bragging to the russian ambassador, fights with the australian Prime Minister on the phone. Its the president himself. I mean more than anyone else and his fitness. And always putting up sound bites from something that donald trump the candidate or donald trump the president said which contradicts something he has done in the moment, every time. Every single time. Listen, it makes it harder for him to be credible when he pushes back against these things. Remember, the issue with Hillary Clintons emails were could by using this private server that information could have been used by a foreign power . In this case you have an active sharing of classified information with a hostile power face to face in the oval office. Not good. Its not like the russians to hack into his email. He gave them the information voluntarily. Should this investigation be part of the investigation into President Trump or the then candidates Trumps Campaign . I dont know if we have three now investigations going on. But i think it needs to be carefully looked into and scrutinized. And damage control needs to be done if it hasnt already. I think its important for people to keep this in context. We have three investigations into russias involvement into our election process. We are in odds with syria and certainly over ukrain. And we have a president who doesnt appear to have a careful nuance to understanding the information and the intelligence that hes getting, if hes even getting it every day. Well come back. I just saved a bunch of money on my Car Insurance with geico. Huh. I should take a closer look at geico. Geico can help with way more than Car Insurance. Boats, homes, motorcycles. Even umbrella coverage. This guys gonna wish he brought his umbrella. Fire at will howd you know the guys name is will . Yeah . Its an expression, ya know . Fire at will . You never heard of that . Oh, there goes will bye, will thats not his name take a closer look at geico. Great savings. And a whole lot more. Our breaking news tonight reports President Trump shared highly classified information with russian officials last week. I want to bring in now michael weiss. Good evening to both of you. How damaging is this, michael . Well, if this is true, its colossally damaging. I spoke to an excia officer this evening and said what do you make of this and they said whoever gave us this intelligence isnt going to give us anymore of this intelligence if this is true. Again, the denial that mcmaster has given and that the Trump Administration and the urists gts is hanging on is the president did not disclose sources or methods. Thats not ingravamen of the the Washington Post exclusiveimates its the information explain that because theyre saying they didnt reveal sources and methods, he didnt do this. Thats not what the report says. Explain to the viewer what the report says. Well, when it comes to the intelligence you can give a certain scenario. You can say, well, we have certain intelligence coming out of such and such place in syria, that isis is looking to hit a western city or commercial airliner or Something Like that. And the russians because they have their own intelligence gathering methods which includes partnering with the iranians and syrians can piece together thou americans know. Sources is pieced together from raw information or credible information. When the dni came out with the report that said what they did not disclose was sources and methods. Right, we dopt know how u. S. Intelligence knows this because if they were to give that away, they would essentially allow the russians nooults their intelligence gathering mechanism. The russians would no knowhow we do cyberwarfare, what our weapons cape nlt is in mus cow, et cetera. By the way, for officials to leak this press, this is the other thing my excia source said, indicates a level of complete agigation and almost theyre driven to distraction about how frustrating this is. This is a case in which the commander in chief might have possible blown an active intelligence opjarkz if not, then hung out his own intelligence communty to dry in the event the russians are now able to blow this intelligence. Go ahead, julia. In your pns, is the white house, this administration tonight being too cute because theyre denying something they know thats not in the report . Well, they may and they may be trying to protect the intelligence relationships they have with this country that trump may have sort of blown the relationship with. So they want to minimize the impact. The notion that intelligenceagies would floif the Washington Post that not only this happened but remember the second piece and the amazing piece of the story is that then theres a scrambling after that meeting to notify the intelligence agencies that this had happened so they can begin to notify our nato allies or whoever it was, other allies and to protect what assets we have and what intelligence gathering resources we have going on. Because the most important thing here we all know over the last week theres been these growing rumors, you have done stories about it, about this highly credible concern about the laptops and was the United States going to extend the laptop ban. So we know theres serious investigation, serious intelligence gathering going on. And then out of the blue somethings shared with the russians. And i cant explain that. Its a cap at best its a casualness about his own job and about his responsibilities as president that its just its hard to be able to explain it anymore. If i just give the president the best of intentions, its just this is a serious job that he wanted. Code word information, julia. Thats what the Washington Post says on the Islamic State. What is this and how secretive is it . Its one of the highest if not the highest sort of intelligence designations for information that would be kept exclusive even within your own intelligence agencies. So in other words you may have such a discreet group of people working on one small, you know, operation, one small cell, that they are actually not going to share that information with maybe a larger isis group or with the Defense Intelligence agencies or with the Defense Department or homeland security. That information would then go to of course the National Security advisor especially if it was an imminent investigation. And then for some reason that information, probably part of the daily brief, gets to trump. And that may include, look, we know that country x has an asset in isis. And that asset is highly vulnerable but willing to share information with us. And something as casually as that said to the russians then will release a series of responses by other countries who do not have our best interest in mind. So julgia, michael said at the very least our intelligence officials and the white house tried to minimize the damage to whats the president did in the oval office. So is leaking this to the Washington Post, does that further damage u. S. Security . No, i mean again as i said the Intelligence Committee i think is trying to protect itself. Because if this whole thing exploded or if the operation goes awry, they want to make it known this isnt because of theyre own incompetence. Its because the president of the United States gave up the goods to the russians. The other part i found compelling is this information is so sensitive we did not share it with our allies. Now theres some information the allies have they do not trust completely why . Because those intelligence agencies have been penetrated by maybe france, germany. So could our allies stop sharing intelligence with us because of this . Yes, and also the reason we didnt share the intelligence with our allies because we didnt want the russians to get ahold of it. But now thats gone because the president shared it in the oval office. Remember kislyak as a spymaster in washington, d. C. , this is no light matter. Youre giving the keys to the kingdom in moskow center here. And also on the intelligence side, we are a country thats actually good at intelligence gathering. We share with other countries that arent as sophisticated. So theyre only as strong as we are. So the weaker we become in terms of ourcapacity to get intelligence from europe or any of our allies, those other countries become weaker. That includes a country like canada which is highly dependent on us for intelligence. So its not just us thats going to be impacted. Other countries that are sort of intelligence consumers will also be impacted by this. Theres just a casualness about the sharing of this information, which its just jaw dropping. These are the russians. I just dont know how more we can say it. I have this big sigh like this is unreal. It really is truly unbelievable. But i just want to know is kislyak, did he play the president . Did he play by buttering him up and getting him into the oval office . I dont think he had to. Look, President Trumps twitter feed is a gold mine for any kind of hostile foreign intelligence service. This is a president who you dont have to get exclusive access to the white house to un