The Trump White House tonight launched a blizzard of denials aimed at discrediting the Washington Post's breaking news that Trump disclosed "highly classified information" during last week's meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador. To a person, however, all of those denials are tailored to denying something the Washington Post report never said.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster briefly spoke to reporters gathered at the White House and issued a terse denial without taking any questions. “The story that came out tonight as reported is false,” McMaster said.
"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."
But that's not what the Washington Post reported. The Post reported that Trump revealed "code-word information" on a specific ISIS-linked threat. None of the White House officials issuing statements on the story are denying that part.
"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."
The report quoted officials who said that information could have been enough to allow Russia to identify the U.S. ally involved or other details.
When you have four White House officials sprinting out to discredit a story with identical denials that do not actually deny the key element of the story, it is indicative that (1) the story is true and (2) this is the only spin they could come up with. And pundits and reporters know it.
If you find this furious spin effort implausible, don't worry; Team Trump will probably have invalidated it by morning. It was Trump himself that proudly stated that the Russia investigation was on his mind when he fired the FBI director, last week; one can only imagine his response this time.