iven that president trump is now going to be meeting face-to-face with literally dozens of foreign leaders, is there sensitivity to his discretion in what sort of information he decides to declassify? how is that something that you are advising him ahead of this foreign trip? general mcmaster: there are no sensitivities in terms of me or anybody who has been with the president. he shares information the way that is wholly appropriate. i should just make maybe a statement here that the president wasn't even aware where this information came from. he wasn't briefed on the source

reporter: general mcmaster, in your email you said "the washington post" story which came out late yesterday afternoon, was false. do you stick by that assertion? do you think that every element of that story is false? do you have anything to correct in terms of what you said at the podium yesterday afternoon? general mcmaster: i stand by my statement yesterday. the premise of that article is false. in any way the president had a conversation that was inappropriate or that resulted in any kind of lasting national security. i think the real issue -- i

have contributed such information to the u.s. and talked to them about it and tried to reassure them? if so what was the reaction? general mcmaster: i have not. i'm not sure what conversations have been held about that. reporter: going back to earlier. if there was nothing the president shared he shouldn't have shared, why doesn't the counterterrorism advisor contact the c.i.a. about what he said? general mcmaster: maybe from an overabundance of caution. i have not talked to him about that. about why he reached out. reporter: what he knew and understand -- general mcmaster: i was in the room. the secretary of state was in the room. the deputy advisor for national security was in the room. and none of us felt in any way that that conversation was inappropriate. reporter: when was the decision made to share that information with the russians? did the president spontaneously on the spot decide to give that information over? or was there an interagency process or...

reporter: reporting on the president's conversations with the russians. are you denying he revealed information that was given to the u.s. by intelligence partner? general mcmaster: what we don't do is discuss what is and what isn't classified. what i will tell you in the context of that discussion, what the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation and is consistent with the routine sharing of information between the president and any leaders with whom he's engaged. reporter: received from an intelligence partner? eneral mcmaster: i'm not going to be the one to confirm that information that could

tolerance. reporter: did the president reveal a city? the spin is the president revealed the name of the city and that gave away information that undermines an ally. general mcmaster: all of you are very familiar with the threat from isis. all of you are very familiar with the territory and controls. if you were to say from where do you think a threat might come from territory that isis controls, would you probably be able to name a few cities. it was nothing you would not know from open source reporting in terms of a source of concern. and it had all to do with operations that are already ongoing, had been made public or months. reporter: back to my

meeting. eporter: when you came out after the story broke, you said the president did not disclose any sources or method. did he not reveal anything about military operations. why were you denying things that were not even reported? what the report said is that the president revealed classified information that had been shared by one of our allies in the middle east. the question is simply a yes or no question here. did the president share classified information with the russians in that meeting? general mcmaster: as i mentioned already. we don't say what's classified or what's not classified. what i will tell you again is what the president shared was wholly appropriate. the story, the story combined what was leaked with other information. and then insinuated about the sources and methods. i wanted to make clear to