White House officials defending Trump insist that he made the statements to get “concessions” from the Russian or make them feel beholden to him. National security advisor H.R. McMaster insisted that such comments were meant to reassure the Russians in their discussions with the President. Instead, Trump himself was criticized later for not only calling Comey a “nut job” (and saying his firing took pressure off the Russian investigation) but for revealing highly classified information received from Israel.
Lavrov however has now insisted that “We did not touch on that topic at all.” Well at least the disconnect between the Russians and the White House in the aftermath of the scandal show no signs of coordination or collusion.
Someone might want to send a note to Russia that this type of help is . . . well . . . not helpful.