Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill compared President Trump’s scandal regarding reports that Russia placed bounties on U.S. troops to the Obama administration’s Benghazi controversy.
McCaskill, a Democrat who lost reelection in 2018, said on Monday that Trump’s claim that he was not briefed on an intelligence report about Russian President Vladimir Putin offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. forces made the Obama administration’s response to an attack that killed four U.S. citizens “look like playing with toys.”
“At 1 o’clock this afternoon, the president’s press representative said he still hadn’t been briefed. Now, let that sink in. He’s been playing golf,” McCaskill told MSNBC. “He’s been tweeting stuff, but he hasn’t said, ‘Hey, I need to get to the bottom of this. This is really important. Our enemy, Russia, is putting a price on the heads of our military.'”
“This is a scandal,” she later added. “I mean, they wanted to make a big deal about Benghazi? This makes Benghazi look like playing with toys. This is a big deal, and they are not treating it like it’s a big deal.”
The Trump administration over the weekend denied a report from the New York Times that Trump had been briefed about the Russian bounties and that he decided not to take any action, including the use of sanctions against Russia. Former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said that the leaked details included only “partial information,” while Trump called the full report “fake news” and said that intelligence officials did not find the claims to be “credible.”
The Obama administration, especially former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was haunted by claims that officials did not respond to calls for help from the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, when the facility came under an attack in 2012, leading to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.
A group of Democratic members of Congress is set to be briefed on the report about Trump and Russia on Tuesday.
