#_author:Michael Walsh

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'I've seen the Promised Land': How a brush with death shaped Martin Luther King's message

Martin Luther King Jr. recovers from surgery in bed at New York’s Harlem Hospital following an operation to remove steel letter opener from his chest after being stabbed by a mentally disturbed woman, Sept. 21, 1958. (Photo: John Lent/AP)

Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., who preached nonviolent resistance to oppression and war, was shot to death in Memphis. He was 39 years old. He left behind a wife and three children and a nation still riven by the divisions he had devoted his life to healing. Yahoo News takes a look back at his life and his legacy in this special report. Jonathan Darman assesses King as a man not without flaws, but with a passion for justice and a conviction that grace can still be found here among us sinners on earth. Senior Editor Jerry Adler looks back on the fateful last year of King’s life, beginning with his electrifying, and controversial, Riverside Church address against the war in Vietnam. National Correspondent Holly Bailey goes back to Selma, Ala., whose poverty moved King to increasingly turn his focus to economic justice, and finds not much has changed in the years since. Reporter Michael Walsh looks at how King almost died in an attack a decade earlier, and how the knowledge of his mortality shaped his ministry and message.

A half-century ago, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination by James Earl Ray, a virulent racist with a criminal past, robbed the civil rights movement of its brightest luminary. But another attempt on King’s life, had it been successful, would have stolen even more.

In September 1958, Izola Ware Curry, a deranged African-American woman from Georgia, stabbed King with a letter opener while he was signing copies of his book “Stride Toward Freedom” at Blumstein’s department store in Harlem. King later said that the tip struck his aorta, and that his entire chest had to be opened to extract it. If he had sneezed, doctors told him, his aorta could have ruptured, drowning him in his own blood. Fortunately, King did not sneeze.

If he had died then, America would have missed his presence for the eventful decade that followed, including the Freedom Rides, the “I Have a Dream” speech, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Selma marches.

Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson, who was selected by Coretta Scott King to edit and publish her late husband’s papers, said King was well aware that his career would open him to threats against his life.

“He was always aware of his mortality, and that just brought it home,” Carson told Yahoo News.

“His home had been bombed before that. He’d been threatened on numerous occasions. He had that experience in Montgomery where he actually considered leaving the movement because of all the threats, not just against himself, but his family.”

Martin Luther King Jr. urges calm from the porch of his home, which was damaged by a bomb during a boycott of the Montgomery, Ala.., bus system to protect segregation in 1956.  With him, left to right, are: Fire Chief R.L. Lampley; Mayor W.A. Gayle (in uniform) and City Police Commissioner Clyde Sellers. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

King had said, before that occasion, that God gave him the courage to continue at a time when he considered stepping down as leader of the movement. In January 1957, he told his congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., that a voice spoke to him on a sleepless morning one year earlier — compelling him to preach the Gospel and stand for truth and righteousness.

“Since that morning I can stand up without fear. So, I’m not afraid of anybody this morning,” King said. “Tell Montgomery they can keep shooting and I’m going to stand up to them. Tell Montgomery they can keep bombing and I’m going to stand up to them.”

So why did a black woman from the American South, a person for whom King put his life on the line, want him dead?

Curry, who grew up outside Adrian, Ga., harbored paranoid delusions about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She reportedly wrote unhinged letters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation claiming it was a Communist front that was actively trailing her. She blamed the NAACP — rather than her deteriorating mental state and unsettling behavior — for sabotaging her attempts to find steady employment. Her paranoia shifted to King as he rose to prominence during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956.

“First of all, she was crazy. She spent the rest of her life in a mental institution,” Carson explained. “But to the extent that there was any rationale, she heard black nationalist harangues against King, that he was a Communist. All the combinations of things that might appeal to someone who was mentally unbalanced to begin with.”

A grand jury indicted Curry for attempted murder, but a psychiatrist determined that she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had an extremely low I.Q. She was committed to a mental hospital for the criminally insane and spent the rest of her life in psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes.

Nowadays, the Curry incident is mostly remembered for its retelling in King’s final speech: “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” delivered in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968 — a day before his murder. He explained how a “demented black woman,” not referring to Curry by name, attacked him, and he described the outpouring of supportive letters he received in the hospital. He didn’t remember what President Eisenhower or New York Gov. Averill Harriman had written, he said, but he would never forgot the letter from a ninth-grade student at White Plains High School in Westchester County, N.Y.

Izola Ware Curry is arrested for stabbing Martin Luther King Jr. with a letter opener at a department store in Harlem while he was there for a book signing, on Sept. 20, 1958. (Photo: Pat Candido/NY Daily News via Getty Images)

“While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering,” she wrote. “And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”

“And I want to say tonight,” King went on, “I want to say tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn’t sneeze.” This little girl’s letter provided the “if I had sneezed” refrain that King used to revisit the many accomplishments of the movement, before predicting that he may soon die but that “the Promised Land” was in sight.

“I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”

In the decade between Curry’s assassination attempt and that speech, King persevered through cross burnings, bomb scares and a shotgun blast into his home. One day after that speech, King was shot dead on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Fifty years later, his message is still relevant, but his mission isn’t complete.

According to Carson, King mentioned his mortality on numerous occasions, but this reference is remembered because it was included in a great speech, which starts off with King revisiting the meaning of his life, a more common theme in his late speeches. Carson said the importance of King not reaching the Promised Land has less to do with the possibility of an early death than that he might never see his dreams fulfilled — whether or not he reached old age.

“Even if he lived he wouldn’t get there, because his goals were much broader than just civil rights reform. I think it’s very significant that in a 1952 letter to Coretta he pledges that his ministry will be about a warless world, a better distribution of wealth and a brotherhood that transcends race or color,” Carson said. “When you think about those three goals, those haven’t been achieved. He certainly hadn’t ended war or poverty or brought about the kind of broad community that he had talked about all his life.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with his mother, Alberta Williams King, and his wife, Coretta Scott King, visiting King in Harlem Hospital as he recovers from a stabbing. (Photo: Al Pucci/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

On March 3, 1968, a month before his death, King delivered the lesser-known “Unfulfilled Dreams” speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga. He mused about why he had fallen short of reaching some of his aspirations and compared himself to the Biblical King David, who never got to see the Temple he started to construct. King described life as a “continual story of shattered dreams” but praised God for giving humans meaningful objectives into which they can pour their hearts.

“And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome. You are left discouraged. You are left bewildered,” King said. “Well, that is the story of life. And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying, ‘It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. It’s well that you are trying.’ You may not see it. The dream may not be fulfilled, but it’s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. It’s well that it’s in thine heart.”

And as King focused on being a virtuous man, powerful people were plotting to destroy him. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover harbored a deep hatred for King and thought he was influenced by Communists. In late 1964, the FBI anonymously sent a package to King that included a tape that allegedly contained audio from one of his trysts and a letter threatening to defame King by publicizing his infidelities if he didn’t do “the only thing left for you to do.” King understood this as encouraging him to commit suicide.

Jonathan Rieder, a professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University, is the author of “Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation” and “The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr.” He said King had to come to terms with the possibility of his own death early on and helped others in the movement do the same thing. King conceived of this “sacrificial burden” as part of the price of making the U.S. a truly democratic nation.

“This was a sacrificial endeavor that he was engaged in, and he would often therefore identify with Jesus,” Rieder told Yahoo News. “His decision to go to jail in Birmingham in 1963 was, in a sense, an awareness that like his savior some would have to die and go to jail so that others could live. It’s a central theme of the Christian part of the civil rights movement.”

Living so closely with death, Rieder continued, King developed a wide repertoire of talks on the subject — ranging from hilarious and jokey to morbid and despondent. When King decided to lead demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala., where Bull Connor harshly enforced segregation, King met with a small group of his colleagues to warn them that they may be killed, according to Rieder.

“And then he would joke about it. He would say, ‘Now y’all think the Klan is going to get me? You will jump in front of the camera and they will get you,” Rieder said. “But I will preach the best funeral you ever had.’ Then he would go around and pick on some little foible or problem with each of his colleagues and do a hilarious funeral about them.”

Andrew Young, a close friend of King’s and the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, once told Rieder that this mixture of solemnity and lightheartedness was King’s way of teaching them to accept the possibility of their death.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. The following day King was assassinated on his motel balcony. (Photo: Charles Kelly/AP)

America would have been the worse for it, but King would have had a much easier life had he not dedicated his life to the civil rights movement. After assuming the mantle of the fight for racial integration, King was vilified by white racists, ridiculed by black nationalists, monitored by the FBI, arrested, threatened, attacked and ultimately murdered — all without, from his perspective, having his dreams come to fruition.

But in “Unfulfilled Dreams,” King concluded that God judges individuals on the “total bent of our lives” rather than “separate mistakes” because he knows his children are weak. Therefore, he said, it’s imperative to get your heart right and keep building your metaphorical temple — regardless of whether it will be finished.

“Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a destination.”

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Baseball shooter had volunteered for Sanders last year; Bernie ‘sickened’ by ‘despicable act’

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., strongly condemned the shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Virginia on Wednesday morning.

Authorities identified the slain gunman who injured at least five as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill., who was a fervent Sanders supporter in last year’s presidential election and according to numerous reports volunteered for the Vermont senator’s campaign.

Hodgkinson, who had run a home-inspection business, has expressed hatred for Republicans on social media and was highly critical of President Trump.

Sanders released a statement condemning the shooting in “the strongest possible terms.” Here is Sanders’ complete statement.

“I have just been informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign. I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms. Real change can only come about through nonviolent action, and anything else runs against our most deeply held American values.

  “My hopes and prayers are that Representative Scalise, congressional staff and the Capitol Police Officers who were wounded make a quick and full recovery. I also want to thank the Capitol Police for their heroic actions to prevent further harm.”

Earlier Wednesday morning, before learning that the gunman supported him politically, Sanders tweeted that he was praying for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the congressional aides and police officers who were wounded in the shooting.

Our prayers go out for a full recovery of Rep. Scalise, the congressional aides and police who were injured. We’ve got to stop the violence.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 14, 2017

More on the shooting at GOP baseball practice:

Live blog with latest updates from D.C. and Alexandria, Va.

GOP lawmakers describe attack: ‘Like being in Iraq but without my gun’

James T. Hodgkinson identified as slain gunman

Who is Steve Scalise, majority whip?

Photos: Shooting at GOP baseball practice in Alexandria, Va.

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Whoops: Trump’s lawyer defends ‘predisent’ after Comey testimony

President Trump’s personal attorney may have been too hasty in drafting up his response to fired FBI Director James Comey’s whirlwind testimony Thursday.

The statement began with the following line: “I am Marc Kasowitz, Predisent [sic] Trump’s personal lawyer.” It later referred to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats as “Coates.”

He also wrote, “this leaks should be investigated.”

Earlier Thursday, Comey told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Trump had asked him to drop the bureau’s investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and asked for his loyalty.

Here is the complete statement from Trump’s lawyer:

Trump’s Lawyer’s Response to Comey Hearing by Yahoo News on Scribd

Read more from Yahoo News:

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James Comey on Trump meeting: ‘Lordy, I hope there are tapes’

James Comey said he hopes that President Trump actually recorded their private conversation. The ousted FBI director suggested that their existence would corroborate what he’s been saying.

On Thursday morning, Comey testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Trump had attempted to interfere with the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s interference with U.S. democratic institutions.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she knows the White House can be an intimidating place but wondered why Comey wasn’t more forceful in rejecting Trump’s alleged pressure on the bureau’s work. Noting that he is “strong,” Feinstein asked Comey why he didn’t say, “Mr. President, this is wrong. I cannot discuss this with you.”

“That’s a great question. Maybe if I were stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in,” he responded.

Comey said he remembers every word that was said during his meeting with Trump behind closed doors.

On May 12, just three days after Comey, Trump took to Twitter to threaten Comey with the possibility that their conversations had been recorded, suggesting that the intelligence professional better think twice before “leaking” information to the press.

“I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said on Thursday. “I remember saying, ‘I agree he’s a good guy’ as a way of saying, ‘I’m not agreeing with what you just asked me to do.’ Again, maybe other people would be stronger in that circumstance but that’s how I conducted myself. I hope I’ll never have another opportunity. Maybe if I did it again I would do it better.”

Later in the hearing, Comey was asked why he wrote a memo about his meeting with Trump when he had not taken similar notes about the last two presidents under whom he served: Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

According to Comey, a memo was a precaution considering the circumstances: He was alone with Trump, the subject matter was of great importance, and “a gut feeling.”

“I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night because it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape. And my judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with the reporter. I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons but I asked him to.”

Though not providing a name, Comey identified this close friend as a professor at Columbia Law School.

Read more from Yahoo News:

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From ‘great respect’ to ‘nut job’: A year in the lives of James Comey and Donald Trump

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Photos: James Comey testifies at Senate hearing

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Flynn should respond to subpoenas, Republican Senator says

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., finds it troubling that President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn hasn’t been more cooperative with the Senate investigation into Russia’s interference with the U.S. election.

“There’s so much we don’t know about Michael Flynn but it looks really, really troubling and obviously Michael Flynn should be responding to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s subpoenas,” Sasse said in Wednesday interview with Yahoo News anchor Bianna Golodryga. “He should be turning over all documents and the investigation should be completed in a fulsome way.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced new subpoenas against Flynn Wednesday to compel him to hand over documents relating to his interactions with Russian officials. He rejected a similar subpoena earlier this week by invoking his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

Flynn was forced to resign after just 24 days following revelations he had mislead Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. His tenure as national security advisor was the shortest in U.S. history.

During the Wednesday interview, Sasse talked about the recently unveiled Congressional Budget Office score for the House health care bill, his new book “The Vanishing American Adult” and the importance of imparting good reading habits on young Americans. But the conversation returned several times to Russia’s interference with U.S. institutions.

He said that he was pleased Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster was chosen to succeed Flynn in the White House.

“That guy’s running a good process and there’s a whole bunch of stuff where the White House doesn’t have a decision-making process yet,” Sasse said. “But in the national security space, a lot of things are working well and that’s a tribute to the fact that the president put General McMaster in there as his national security adviser.”

When asked about Trump’s reluctance to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for interfering with the U.S. election, Sasse made his position on the Russian strongman abundantly clear.

“Putin is an enemy of the American people. Putin is an enemy of free association, free speech, free assembly, free press. And these things are the beating heart of the American experiment,” Sasse said.

He said the government is not the center of American life but that it should set a provide a framework for ordered liberty: that means celebrating free speech and free press, as well as making it clear that Russia’s interests are not aligned with America’s interests.

“Russia did clearly attempt to interfere in our election in the 2016 cycle,�� he said, “and we need to dig into that in a complete and fulsome way.”

Read more from Yahoo News:

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Muslim girls harassed at Chicago-area Mexican restaurant: ‘If you don’t like this country, leave’

Sawin Osman, a high school student who was born and raised in Chicago, told Yahoo News that she and her friends were harassed Monday night while eating at a Mexican restaurant in Hickory Hills, Ill. They were at Pepe’s restaurant on Monday night for Iftar, the evening meal after their Ramadan fast.

Another customer, an unidentified middle-aged man, noticed the five girls’ religious headscarves and made a rude comment alluding to one friend’s weight and to their religion, according to 17-year-old Osman.

One of the girls used her smartphone to shoot video of the encounter, and Yahoo News spotted it on social media. Osman agreed to be identified in order to speak out against the inflammatory comments.

“We were walking past him on our way out of the restaurant. He yelled, ‘That girl could break a camel’s back,’” Osman recalled. “We stopped and said, ‘Excuse me, sir, what did you just say?’”

“You can go and beat it. If you don’t like this country, leave,” the man said.

“It’s our home too. What do you mean leave?” Osman said.

According to Osman, the man said that the entire exchange wasn’t a big deal. “I just said she’s a big one. What’s the problem? Yeah, anything else?”

Another friend told the man that he’s “disgusting,” prompting him to get out of his seat.

“It looked like he was going to get physical, so we all started to walk,” she said.

As the girls were leaving, he screamed, “F***ing goddamn, camel-jacking mother f***ing c***s.”

A Pepe’s employee at the location told Yahoo News that they have been told about the video, which does not depict staff doing anything amiss. (Neither a location manager nor a company rep was immediately available for comment.)

Osman’s mother, Catherine Bronson, is a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame and her stepfather, Sean Anthony, is a professor of Islamic Studies at Ohio State University. They have a bi-religious family.

“We live in a very charged climate. I think the furor at the presidential level has sort of exacerbated this feeling and given a platform for those who might not have spoken out so aggressively,” Bronson said.

Osman agrees. She said this incident shows that anti-Muslim bigotry is a huge problem in the U.S.

“It’s honestly very terrible and disgusting, especially the comment, ‘If you don’t like it, then just leave.’ I mean I was born here. I was raised here. Leave to where?” she asked.

She said all of her friends at the restaurant that day are from Chicago.

“Just because we have the headscarf on doesn’t mean we’re not from here,” Osman said.

Read more from Yahoo News:

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Kellyanne Conway’s husband criticizes Trump’s travel ban tweets as ‘sad’

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Lawmakers demand Trump release transcript of Russia meeting—if there is one

“When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” – Richard Nixon

Lawmakers are calling on President Trump to release the transcript of last week’s meeting with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador in which he reportedly revealed top-secret information, assuming the meeting was recorded and a transcript exists.

Democrats had already been asking the Trump administration to release any tapes of his Oval Office meetings after he raised the possibility that he had recorded his conversation with fired FBI director James Comey.

But after the Washington Post published a bombshell report that Trump had shared top-secret information with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak, members of both major political parties joined to demand greater transparency from Trump.

Former and current U.S. officials told the Post that sharing the intelligence with the Russians endangers a relationship with a foreign government critical to the fight against ISIS, and is so sensitive that it’s been withheld from other U.S. allies.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., took to Twitter Tuesday morning to demand that Trump give the U.S. intelligence community, the American people and Congress a full explanation. He said revealing classified information at this level is “extremely dangerous” and puts the lives of Americans and those who collect intelligence for the country at risk.

The White House should make the transcript of @POTUS' mtg w/ the Russian Foreign Minister & Ambassador available to Intel Cmtes ASAP

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 16, 2017

The American people will be justified, Schumer said, in doubting whether or not Trump can handle the country’s closely guarded secrets until the administration provides an unedited transcript.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Trump is failing at his most important task as president — protecting the United States’ national security.

A week ago Trump fired Comey. Now this. It's vitally important that Trump make public any recordings he has of talks in the Oval Office.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 15, 2017

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., argued on Twitter that though the president has the legal authority to disclose classified information there’s a larger question about whether or not he should. He said the transcript should be handed over to the House and Senate intelligence committees for the sake of transparency and that he anticipates “getting a thorough account” of the meeting.

As an intelligence officer by training, I know firsthand the life and death implications of safeguarding classified information.

— Rep. Mike Gallagher (@RepGallagher) May 16, 2017

Gallagher said the United States’ allies must have the “utmost confidence” that the sensitive information they share with us is not disclosed and that it’s dangerous for Americans to believe Russia can be reliable in counterterrorism efforts.

The sooner we abandon this fantasy and work with our allies to oppose the Russian-Iranian axis throughout the Middle East, the better.

— Rep. Mike Gallagher (@RepGallagher) May 16, 2017

Sen. Richard Blumenthal. D-Conn., said Monday night that all potential Trump tapes regarding Comey’s dismissal or the meeting with the Russian leaders should be subpoenaed to preserve evidence and uncover the truth. He elaborated Tuesday morning on “The Today Show.”

“The Congress must subpoena transcripts and tapes, whether they exist or not,” Blumenthal said. “The only way to know reliably whether there are such transcripts or tapes is to issue a subpoena, probably from the intelligence committees and make sure that all of the evidence is provided to the appropriate members of Congress. And that is because those transcripts would reveal whether classified information was shared with the Russians.”

Other politicians weighed in as well.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., described Trump’s actions as “appalling and deeply disturbing.” He said sharing sensitive information with Russia “undermines national security, breaks trust of our allies & puts lives at risk”

If literally anyone else did what @realDonaldTrump is reported to have done, there would be an immediate criminal investigation.

— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBookerOffice) May 15, 2017

Booker asked when Republicans in Congress will start doing their jobs and hold Trump accountable for his actions.

In making his point, Rep. André Carson, D-Ind., referenced an old tweet from House Speaker Paul Ryan suggesting that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should be denied further access to classified information considering her allegedly “extremely careless” handling of it.

I eagerly await @SpeakerRyan’s statement calling for President Trump to be denied access to our nation’s secrets. https://t.co/ZVoARfiEfN

— André Carson (@RepAndreCarson) May 16, 2017

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was Clinton’s running mate against Trump and Vice President Mike Pence last year, said that he’s not surprised by the news.

Shocking actions for any American President but sadly unsurprising coming from President Trump. https://t.co/yPgycqLyda

— Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) May 15, 2017

On Monday night, Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, R-N.J., said sharing intelligence on a mutual threat — ISIS in this case — is warranted at times and the president has the right to do so, but that the United States must take every precaution to protect its sources and methods of gathering information. He said he’s deeply concerned about the recent reports and intends to bring up the issue at the House Intelligence Committee’s next meeting.

Classified intelligence is classified for a reason and must be respected and protected as such at all levels of government.

— Frank LoBiondo (@RepLoBiondo) May 15, 2017

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., released a statement calling for the House Intelligence Committee to be briefed on what Trump shared with the Russian officials.

Report that Trump shared highly classified intelligence with Russians is deeply disturbing. House Intel needs to be briefed immediately. pic.twitter.com/jHaMKy71am

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 15, 2017

On Tuesday, Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster argued that Trump’s conversation with the Russians was “wholly appropriate” and that he has “an absolute right” to share “facts pertaining to terrorism” with Russia.

Read more from Yahoo News:

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