Top Democrats in the House of Representatives visited the White House on Tuesday morning for a briefing on the alleged bounties Russia put on American soldiers in Afghanistan — and who at the White House knew about the intelligence and when, Fox News informed.
The delegation was led by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md,. and also included Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., among others. Hoyer and Schiff each said that they wanted actual members of the intelligence community to brief them rather than White House staff.
“Sunday evening I received a telephone call from” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who “asked me to put together a group of eight to ten members of the purpose of having a briefing,” Engel said at a press conference after the briefing.
He continued to say that the briefing still did not fulfill the “speaker and the minority leader of the Senate’s request for a full briefing of our members.”
“The right people to give the briefing were … not in the room,” Schiff said.
“Many of us do not understand his affinity for that autocratic ruler who means our nation ill,” he added, speaking of Trump’s alleged past deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Schiff said that is “a problem for our entire nation’s security.”
In response to questions, Hoyer said “we did not receive any new substantive information” and that he did not get assurances from the White House that there would be a full briefing for all members.
Hoyer on Monday had demanded a briefing for all House members on the matter.
“President Truman used to have a plaque on his desk that said ‘The buck stops here.’ President Trump’s approach seems to be, dangerously, as he has said before, ‘I don’t take responsibility at all’,” Hoyer said in a statement. “Over the weekend, we learned of allegations that our intelligence services assessed in March that Russia has been offering a monetary reward for killing American troops in Afghanistan. Outrageously, it appears that President Trump has taken no action since that time, not even warning the Russian government to stop.”
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