WASHINGTON — A growing number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers are calling on President Donald Trump to hand over the transcript of the White House meeting last week in which he revealed highly classified information to Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Members of Congress – primarily Democrats – have spent several days demanding Trump to turn over tapes of White House meetings after he suggested, while defending his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, that he records his conversations.
But the calls intensified Tuesday morning after Trump seemed to acknowledge on Twitter that he had shared sensitive information during his meeting with the Russians.
“For the purpose of transparency, the White House should share a transcript of the meeting with the House and Senate intelligence committees,” former intelligence officer and freshman Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., tweeted Tuesday morning.
“Our allies and partners must have the utmost confidence that sensitive information they share with us will not be disclosed,” Gallagher wrote.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., made the call on Tuesday morning.
“The White House should make the transcript of @POTUS’ mtg w/ the Russian Foreign Minister & Ambassador available to Intel Cmtes ASAP,” Schumer wrote on Twitter.
“Until the Admin provides the unedited transcript, American ppl will rightly doubt if POTUS can handle our nation’s most closely kept secrets,” he wrote.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster conducts a briefing Tuesday morning at the White House. McMaster had scheduled the briefing to talk about Trump’s first overseas trip, which opens Friday, but was expected to face questions about allegations that Trump shared classified intelligence information with Russian officials when they met in the Oval Office last week.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who on Monday called the notion of Trump sharing classified information with Russia “appalling,” said Congress should have access to tapes of Trump’s conversations with Comey as well as his meeting with Russian officials.
“All potential Trump tapes should be subpoenaed to uncover truth and preserve evidence – both Comey and meeting with Russians,” Blumenthal tweeted Monday night.
The requests for more information portend a difficult week for the White House on Capitol Hill, where Republicans are seeking to maintain focus on their legislative agenda, including the negotiation of a Senate health-care bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who on Monday declined to comment on Trump’s disclosures, said Tuesday that he wished the White House would produce “less drama.”
“I think it would be helpful if the president spent more time on things we’re trying to accomplish and less time on other things,” McConnell said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Tuesday.
He continued to dodge questions about the story, first reported by The Washington Post, that Trump shared highly classified intelligence with Russia.
“I’ve heard the allegation. I’ve heard the response. I don’t think I have anything to add to what I’ve read in terms of the impact of this in the future,” he told Bloomberg.
Lawmakers expressed shock and concern Monday night at the news of Trump’s disclosures, which jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The information Trump relayed, officials said, was provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government.
Lawmakers’ requests are likely to be complicated by the sensitivity of the information that Trump shared. One White House aide called for the problematic portion of Trump’s discussion to be stricken from internal memos and for the full transcript to be limited to a small circle of recipients, efforts to prevent sensitive details from being disseminated further or leaked.
White House aides have neither confirmed nor denied the possibility Trump that records his conversations at the White House. McConnell also declined to comment on that possibility.
The developing story is expected to consume Congress’s attention, particularly as House members return later Tuesday from a week-long recess. But apart from the nervous “concerns” of Senate Republicans, the president’s party showed very few signs of discord.
As of Tuesday morning, just two Republicans had signed onto a Democratic effort to create a special prosecutor for a Russia probe. Both of them, Reps. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and Walter Jones, R-N.C., are libertarian-leaning iconoclasts who frequently break with their party.
More Republicans had called for the White House to be forthcoming, without calling for an investigation.
In addition to Gallagher, Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., issued a statement on Twitter calling for more information. Both represent districts that swung strongly toward Trump in 2016.
“Classified intelligence is classified for a reason and must be respected and protected as such at all levels of government,” he wrote. “Media reports are deeply concerning & I will raise issue surrounding disclosure of classified info in @HouseIntelComm when we meet this week.”
Other lawmakers urged Trump to level with Congress about what took place.
“The administration should promptly share with Congress, in a classified setting, the precise details of the president’s meeting,” Amash tweeted Tuesday morning.
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