President Trump has added fuel to the fire of controversy and speculation over the question of why CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise and highly rare trip to Moscow on Tuesday.
Media accounts which seek to explain the nature of his meeting with top Kremlin intelligence officials, while apparently being snubbed by Putin in terms of a direct interaction, have shifted in days since the visit. The early 'consensus' was that he delivered a stern warning for Russia not to attack any NATO state. But President Trump has poured cold water on this explanation, appearing to dismiss it outright in his latest comments.
"I've had good talks with him. He's not going to be attacking a NATO territory," Trump said of Putin on Thursday while talking to reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump didn't answer specifically when pressed on if the president directed Ratcliffe to deliver a warning to Putin to not attack NATO. "I don't want to comment on that but they're not going to attack," Trump said.
While many times over the course of the Ukraine war, European heads of state have claimed that Russia is expansionist and seeks to attack countries in Europe beyond Ukraine, this has not ever been a public allegation of Trump, who has tended to downplay it as a possibility.
Trump did deny the reports centered on Ratcliffe in an interview with READ MORE AT SOURCE »
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