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Originally Posted by calculoso
There can't be multiple wrongs on this topic?
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There can be, but it doesn't appear there is.
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Trump was wrong in sharing the Intel with the Russians.
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He most certainly was, seeing there was Russian media in the room at the time. Intel is to be shared only with those individuals who are cleared to receive it, and have the appropriate understanding of the subject matter to disseminate it accordingly. The audience in question was neither. If intelligence information was to be shared it should have been between intelligence agencies, not between diplomats. Diplomats are rarely read in on the complete nature of the intel, so it is not their position to share it. The only thing Trump did here was damage relations within the intelligence community and sources key to helping achieve out political endstate.
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The Media was wrong in sharing too many specific details with the public.
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If you're going to play the card that Trump was okay to share the information, then the media was more than free to share all details revealed in that meeting. The media has responsibility to maintain the integrity of sources and data received from those sources. If they receive compartmentalized information they have a responsibility to, and usually do, maintain that compartment. But in this instance, Trump supposedly declassified the information, so that makes it all free game. You see, a President does have the legal right to classify and declassify information, but he does not have the right to declassify then reclassify it, especially when it is to cover up his own incompetence. That's what the EO 11652 said and started us down this rabbit hole, and what EO 13526 states and still is the rule for such action.
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They aren't mutually exclusive, and believing the second is true doesn't preclude someone from believing in the first one (and certainly doesn't imply defending Trump in the slightest)
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You're right, they aren't. Except in this particular instance, the argument being made is doing just that.