John Ratcliffe says Trump wasn't briefed on Russian bounties for Taliban, Internet asks spy chief to quit
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has broken his silence on the reports that President Donald Trump knew about Russian intelligence officers offering money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan as rewards if they killed US troops, saying he was not briefed about the issue.
The New York Times reported that the White House's National Security Council held a meeting on this in March after President Donald Trump was informed about the information. However, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated that these allegations were false and further added that President and Vice President Mike Pence were not briefed on this matter.
Once this news was out, many were quick to slam Trump with hashtags like #TRE45ON, #TraitorInChief, and others. After seeing these reports circulating online, DNI Ratcliffe was quick to break his silence with a statement. "Statement by DNI Ratcliffe: "I have confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President was ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday," the official account of Office of DNI tweeted.
The statement continued, "The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate.” People were shocked by the statement and immediately called for Ratcliffe to be fired as they believed he failed to do his duty.
"You're in charge of briefing them, Mr Ratcliffe. If they weren't briefed, you were derelict and should resign or be fired," read one comment. "As a citizen, I’m calling for your immediate resignation. You are derelict in your duty. The president should have been informed. It should have been page one of the PDB. I5 shows a complete lack of competence at best," read another comment.
"So we the American citizens knew about this #RussianBounty intelligence before Trump and Pence did? That’s the best story you could come up with? Really?" another user questioned. Meanwhile, others questioned the credibility revolving around the incident as one user wrote, "Someone is lying. Either it’s trump, DNI Ratcliffe, and @PressSec, or it’s the US and UK intelligence officials. My money is on the proven liars lying. Either way, members of both parties should want to find out. The party that doesn’t is likely the party of liars."
President Trump has not made a statement on this matter yet.