What a year last week was. It was one that saw President Donald Trump fire FBI Director James Comey, the very man spearheading a counterintelligence investigation into alleged Trump-Russia ties during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Then both he and his mouthpieces proceeded to lie and obfuscate for several days about how and why they did it, even going so far as to invoke Hillary Clinton, only to see Trump admit that was all malarkey to NBC News’ Lester Holt. Then the president decided to, at the request of Vladimir Putin, welcome the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to Washington—the man at the center of the Trump-Russia controversy, mind you—into the Oval Office for a photo op. And then the White House was forced admit that it was conned by the Russians when the photos of Trump and the Russians mugging for the camera leaked courtesy of Russia state news.
On Monday night it got worse: The Washington Post, quoting current and former intelligence officials, reported that Trump revealed “highly classified information” to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador during that White House meeting. The Post’s sources said the intel “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State” and was more “than we have shared with our own allies.”
“I knew it!” exclaimed The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, who had aired a lengthy segment calling out Trump for being trolled by Russia.
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“No, I knew something was up when we saw President Trump up with the Russians—and they were smiling. There are only two times a Russian man smiles: the day he dies, and this,” he added.
According to The Washington Post, Trump is alleged to have boasted to the Russian foreign minister about his “inside knowledge” of the ISIS intel, stating, “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” before going on to reveal “aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner.”
“I mean, once again, this sounds like a story that we would invent, right?” offered Noah. “Trump invites the Russians into the Oval Office and then during his meeting starts bragging, ‘I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,’ and then proceeds to give them the intel. He probably doesn’t even know what ‘intel’ is short for. ‘My intellivision is the best. It gets the highest ratings! The best ratings of all.’”
“What’s really sad about this is that Donald Trump is trying to impress the Russians with the fact that he’s president?” he continued. “They know! The guy’s there like, ‘Yeah, do you guys know that I’m president?’ and they’re like, ‘Yes, that is how we planned it. Of course.’”
