Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said reports that President Trump shared classified information with Russian diplomats are “weird,” and said he’s worried about Trump’s willingness to share information with an antagonist state.
Sasse said on MSNBC that Trump wasn’t helping his own case by being too friendly with Russian officials.
“It’s not helpful that this was with the Russians,” he said. “This is just weird. We and the Russians do not have aligned interests. They want to exacerbate our internal distrust of each other, they want to fracture NATO. Putin is an enemy of the freedom of the press, speech and assembly, which is the beating heart of what America means.”
.@SenSasse on #morningjoe says Trump sharing intel with Russians in Oval Office is "weird" https://t.co/pDTW3hBv37— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) May 16, 2017
The Washington Post reported Monday Trump shared classified information with Russian diplomats during a White House meeting last week. The president has the legal authority to declassify information, but many critics have ripped him for being too trusting of the Russians.
Sasse said sharing classified intelligence about bombs hidden in laptops on airplanes with the Russians goes against a lot of what the United States stands for.
“One of the basic duties of someone in a public office that has a public trust responsibility is to be celebrating what America is about and to be telling that story,” he said. “Right now, Washington isn’t doing any of that.”
Sasse added that the whiplash news cycle that keeps the capital living in the moment and not thinking about the big picture is bad for the country.
“We live like a people without history,” he said. “We live like a people without history or a future and we live in the moment. We live like we won’t be held accountable.”
