H.R. McMaster Reacts to President Trump’s Taxes

H.R. MCMASTER, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, Christiane, I can’t speculate. I mean, I’ve just read what you’ve read and none of it is definitive yet. So I think we all have to wait to see what are the results. But your point, I think, that is certainly valid that we ought to consider is that the Russians in particular are brilliant at trying to compromise leaders, so they can use any kind of information against them. I mean, this is why, for example, President Bill Clinton received a very handsome speaking fee in Moscow. They play all sides and then try to use it to their advantage. It’s to be expected. And what I write about in Battlegrounds is both political parties in the run up to the 2016 election, made it way too easy for the GRU, which is the follow on to the KGB or the military intelligence arm of the Kremlin. And so we have to all be very responsible, across the political spectrum to be transparent and then if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So when you say both political parties, what do you mean, exactly? And I’m interested because you do go quite deep into what Russia is trying to get out of the United States or its goal for the west versus what China is trying to get. But first, what do you mean, both made it too easy for the GRU?

MCMASTER: Well, what happened is obviously you saw all of the attempts to try to compromise the Trump campaign. The reports from the Mueller investigation where that those failed, trying to come up with lucrative real estate deals and that sort of thing. Those were never brought to fruition, at least as far as the Mueller report went. And then you had the Democratic National Committee. I told the story in the book how they hired retired foreign intelligence officer who then hired former KGB officers and Russian intelligence officers to deliver a report on President Trump. So really, what you have is, is the Kremlin in the 2016 election was ready to sow dissension no matter who won. And what was interesting about at the end of the election is they had a campaign ready to go, that if Hillary Clinton won is to say, hey, the election was rigged, Trump really won but it was stolen from him. Well, when Trump one, I mean, I think the Kremlin was probably as surprised as everybody else was that President Trump won the election. They turned that campaign to say, oh, well, he would have won the popular vote, except that the election was rigged. And so they’re ready to really just diminish our confidence, to try to polarize U.S. and hit us against each other.