President Donald Trump is disputing a whistleblower complaint that claims he said something inappropriate during a call with a foreign leader.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that an anonymous whistleblower within the intelligence community flagged the phone call on August 12, warning that the president had made a “promise” to the foreign leader. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has refused to share details of the complaint with Congress, citing executive privilege. (RELATED: Mystery Whistleblower Complaint Involves Alleged Trump Phone Call With Foreign Leader)
In a series of tweets, the president called it “Fake News” that he would’ve said anything worthy of such a complaint when he knew the intelligence community would be listening in on the call.
“Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!” Trump said. “Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially ‘heavily populated’ call.”
Another Fake News story out there – It never ends! Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2019
He also added that even if the intelligence community weren’t listening in on his calls, he would “only do what is right anyway.”
….Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially “heavily populated” call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2019
CNN analyst Phil Mudd called the whistleblower a “snitch” and blasted the idea that intelligence community employees should be reporting the president’s calls with foreign leaders, asserting, “The president can say what he wants. It’s not the responsibility of the intel guys to go police the president and go snitch on him to the Congress. Ridiculous!”