White House officials hastily changed their plans to brief reporters Tuesday amid controversy over reports that President Trump shared highly classified information with Russian officials, opting to have national security adviser H.R. McMaster speak publicly rather than press secretary Sean Spicer.
Although Spicer and McMaster were slated to brief reporters together at a televised event on Tuesday afternoon, the White House announced that McMaster would conduct the televised briefing hours earlier and Spicer would, instead, speak to reporters at the White House out of the sight of cameras.
The abrupt change comes as the White House struggles to explain how and why Trump revealed details related to intelligence obtained and shared by a U.S. ally to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador.
The revelation, reported first by the Washington Post, sent the administration scrambling to explain Trump’s disclosure late Tuesday evening. Trump’s embattled team was already dealing with the fall-out from the president’s decision to remove FBI Director James Comey in the midst of the bureau’s investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers during the presidential race.
Trump has openly expressed frustration with his communications team and has even threatened to end the daily press briefings and instead conduct bi-weekly briefings himself.
