Politico reports:
President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that his top intelligence officials were “misquoted” and “taken out of context” when they publicly broke with some of his core foreign policy views during congressional testimony earlier this week.
CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on Tuesday shared assessments that were at odds with Trump’s talking points on sensitive issues such as North Korea and ISIS, prompting Trump to lash out at his intelligence officials, calling them “naive” and that they should “go back to school.”
But later Thursday afternoon, after meeting with Haspel and Coats in the Oval Office, Trump struck a different tone. He argued the comments were taken out of context — though a full report and recordings are publicly available — and that his intelligence team actually agrees with his world view.
Just concluded a great meeting with my Intel team in the Oval Office who told me that what they said on Tuesday at the Senate Hearing was mischaracterized by the media – and we are very much in agreement on Iran, ISIS, North Korea, etc. Their testimony was distorted press…. pic.twitter.com/Zl5aqBmpjF
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
….I would suggest you read the COMPLETE testimony from Tuesday. A false narrative is so bad for our Country. I value our intelligence community. Happily, we had a very good meeting, and we are all on the same page!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
Except it was broadcast live. The gaslighting just never stops. No wonder we’re all exhausted!
— Amy Siskind ?️? (@Amy_Siskind) January 31, 2019
Blaming the media on this doesn’t make any sense because we all could literally see the intelligence chiefs speak on live TV. These are their own words. Blame the media for televising your own administration?
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) January 31, 2019