White House officials are openly admitting they don’t know how to respond to questions about President Trump’s striking news conference in Helsinki today.
Aides who traveled with the President in Europe boarded Air Force One around 8:33 p.m. local time (1:33 p.m. ET), leaving those back in Washington to field inquiries for the next eight and half hours.
Staffers who are answering their phones — without requiring it be off the record — don’t have much to say.
But here's what they are saying: Asked if anyone from the administration will resign over the President’s remarks, a senior White House official quipped, “Good question.” So far, none have defended what the President said, with only one noting it was simply Trump’s interpretation of things.
CNN has only received one response, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding previous statements about Russian interference in the election.
The CIA, FBI, NSA, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and press secretary Sarah Sanders have yet to respond.
bigcracker on July 17th, 2018 at 12:41 UTC »
You know he messed up when Fox and CNN both agree on something. Remember he considers Fox the real news and they and several republicans turned on him.
foreverwasted on July 17th, 2018 at 12:26 UTC »
As someone who isn't from the US, all these articles all look like the same thing phrased differently over and over again.
cd3v on July 17th, 2018 at 12:03 UTC »
It's not a Trump problem, it's a republican problem.
Climate change: Listens to oil companies instead of climate scientists.
Marijuana: Repeating misinformation from the 1950's
Economy: Listens to billionaires instead of economists
etc. etc. etc.
the list could go on...
Either they can't recognize what an authoritative source is or they have an issue with learning in general... it's systemic.
EDIT: because formatting on my phone sucks