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Bolton: Trump's denial of Russian bounty intelligence briefing shows his 'fundamental focus' is not on US security

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that President Donald Trump denying he was briefed on intelligence that Russians had tried to bribe Taliban fighters to kill US troops shows Trump's "fundamental focus" is not on the United States' national security.

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By
Devan Cole
, CNN
CNN — Former White House national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that President Donald Trump denying he was briefed on intelligence that Russians had tried to bribe Taliban fighters to kill US troops shows Trump's "fundamental focus" is not on the United States' national security.

"The fact that the President feels compelled to tweet about the news story here shows that what his fundamental focus is, is not the security of our forces, but whether he looks like he wasn't paying attention. So he's saying well nobody told me therefore you can't blame me," Bolton told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

The former official added that he believed Trump's motivation for denying a briefing is "because it looks bad if Russians are paying to kill Americans and we're not doing anything about it."

"So what is the presidential reaction? It's to say it's not my responsibility, nobody told me about it," Bolton said.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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