White House officials say leaks "coordinated and timed" to hurt Trump
White House officials are left picking up the pieces after reports about President Trump revealing classified information continue to rail the administration.
CBS News White House Correspondent Major Garrett reports that administration officials feel the leaks in recent days have been "coordinated and timed."
Officials within the Trump White House believe leaks of Mr. Trump's conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are a "deliberate attempt" by former Obama and current officials looking to damage the Trump presidency.
That sentiment was echoed Tuesday evening as the Trump campaign released an email to supporters entitled "SABOTAGE", in which the campaign wrote "there are people within our own unelected bureaucracy that want to sabotage President Trump and our entire America First movement."
White House officials acknowledge the timing of Mr. Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey amid new questions of obstruction of justice have been less than ideal, but the White House continues to stand their ground in defense of the president.
Gen. H.R. McMaster continued to defend the president, saying Mr. Trump's conversations about sensitive information with top Russian officials was "wholly appropriate." The president's national security adviser called into question Mr. Trump's knowledge of where exactly the source of classified information came from.
CBS News confirmed later that day that Israel was the source of the information, putting a damper on preparations for Mr. Trump's visit to the region next week.
And while Mr. Trump ignored questions from reporters much of the day on Tuesday as he welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan, he did finally acknowledge questions about the meeting, calling it "very successful."
"Our fight is against ISIS. As General McMaster said - I thought he said and I know he feels that we had actually a great meeting with the foreign minister, so we're going to have a lot of great success over the next coming years."
