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'''The argument is dubious because the Russians would know that the U.S. government knew exactly what the conversations entailed, so how would the blackmail work?''' But this “blackmail” argument is another throwback to the earlier McCarthy days when gays were barred from sensitive government jobs because of their alleged susceptibility to blackmail.

'''The argument is dubious because the Russians would know that the U.S. government knew exactly what the conversations entailed, so how would the blackmail work?''' But this “blackmail” argument is another throwback to the earlier McCarthy days when gays were barred from sensitive government jobs because of their alleged susceptibility to blackmail.

But the gambit to get Flynn worked. Amid frenzied coverage on CNN, [[MSNBC]], The ''Washington Post'', The ''New York Times'' and the rest of the mainstream media, Flynn and the Russia ''détente'' that he stood for were not expected to be long for this world of Official Washington." https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/14/trump-caves-on-flynns-resignation/ </small></ref><ref>On February 14 [[Charles Krauthammer]] commented on the unmasking of Flynn, "When the conversation involves an American, there are extremely strict procedures to blur the identity, to hide the identity and to protect the information coming from the American. This is the exact opposite of that and it is scary."<ref>[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/02/14/krauthammer_we_can_not_have_intel_agencies_eavesdrop_on_americans_and_release_it_to_press.html]</ref>}}

But the gambit to get Flynn worked. Amid frenzied coverage on CNN, [[MSNBC]], The ''Washington Post'', The ''New York Times'' and the rest of the mainstream media, Flynn and the Russia ''détente'' that he stood for were not expected to be long for this world of Official Washington." https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/14/trump-caves-on-flynns-resignation/ </small></ref><ref>On February 14 [[Charles Krauthammer]] commented on the unmasking of Flynn, "When the conversation involves an American, there are extremely strict procedures to blur the identity, to hide the identity and to protect the information coming from the American. This is the exact opposite of that and it is scary."[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/02/14/krauthammer_we_can_not_have_intel_agencies_eavesdrop_on_americans_and_release_it_to_press.html]</ref>}}

On February 16 at a press conference, Trump lashed back at the tapping of his [[Oval Office]] phone conversations with other heads of government. Trump says, {{quotebox|"I called, as you know, [[Mexico]]. It was a very, very confidential, classified call... I spoke to the president of Mexico; I had a good call. '''All of a sudden, it's out there for the world to see. It's supposed to be secret. It's supposed to be either confidential or classified, in that case. Same thing with Australia. All of a sudden, people are finding out exactly what took place [in a presidential Oval Office phone call]. The same thing happened with respect to General Flynn. Everybody saw this. And I'm saying -- the first thing I thought of when I heard about it is: How does the press get this information that's classified? How do they do it?''' You know why? Because it's an illegal process and the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves, really ashamed."<ref>http://time.com/4674061/donald-trump-press-conference-russia-transcript/</ref>}}

On February 16 at a press conference, Trump lashed back at the tapping of his [[Oval Office]] phone conversations with other heads of government. Trump says, {{quotebox|"I called, as you know, [[Mexico]]. It was a very, very confidential, classified call... I spoke to the president of Mexico; I had a good call. '''All of a sudden, it's out there for the world to see. It's supposed to be secret. It's supposed to be either confidential or classified, in that case. Same thing with Australia. All of a sudden, people are finding out exactly what took place [in a presidential Oval Office phone call]. The same thing happened with respect to General Flynn. Everybody saw this. And I'm saying -- the first thing I thought of when I heard about it is: How does the press get this information that's classified? How do they do it?''' You know why? Because it's an illegal process and the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves, really ashamed."<ref>http://time.com/4674061/donald-trump-press-conference-russia-transcript/</ref>}}