https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1277202159109537793Quote
Nobody briefed or told me,
@VP
Pence, or Chief of Staff
@MarkMeadows
about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an “anonymous source” by the Fake News
@nytimes
. Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us.....
...Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration. With Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama, Russia had a field day, taking over important parts of Ukraine - Where’s Hunter? Probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax. Who is their “source”?
So first, Trump mischaracterizes what the Times report says. The claim was that the GRU was paying bounties to Taliban-linked groups to kill Americans and other coalition troops.
He says everybody is denying it, but that's not true. Ratcliffe is denying Trump and Pence were briefed on it, but he didn't say the report was wrong on the intelligence.
This looks to be a scandal any way you slice it, unless every news organization in the country has bad sources. Either Trump and his team are lying, or someone was holding back critical intelligence from the president and vice president.