President Trump on Sunday denied being briefed about intelligence that Russia offered bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. and NATO coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. The New York Times first reported on the bounties on Friday, with the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other outlets later confirming through sources familiar with a classified American intelligence assessment.

In two tweets, Trump said there “have not been many attacks” on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and said the report is probably “another phony Times hit job.” He also claimed that “nobody has been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration.”

"While the White House does not routinely comment on alleged intelligence or internal deliberations, the CIA Director, National Security Advisor, and the Chief of Staff can all confirm that neither the President nor the Vice President were briefed on the alleged Russian bounty intelligence," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement on Saturday.

According to the reports, intelligence officials have in fact briefed Trump on the bounties, and gave the White House a menu of options on how to retaliate. The administration has so far not taken any concrete actions on the issue.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized Trump on Saturday and claimed Trump has not been tough enough on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“President Trump, the commander in chief of American troops serving in a dangerous theater of war, has known about this for months according to the Times and done worse than nothing,” Biden said.

“Not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin,” Biden continued. “He has had this information according to the Times and yet he offered to host Putin in the United States and sought to invite Russia to rejoin the G7.”

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., called the revelations about the bounties “as bad as it gets.”

"This is totally outrageous. You would think that the minute he heard of this the president would want to know more instead of denying anything," Pelosi said. "Now he says it's fake news. Why would he say that? why wouldn't he say, 'Let's look into it?'"

Rep. Ted Lieu, D- Calif., called Trump’s lack of response to the reported bounties “traitorous behavior.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, a close Trump ally, said Congress needs to investigate the issue.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the White House needs to explain what it has done to hold Putin accountable for the bounties.

The Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. has called the allegations “baseless.” Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, also denied the bounty deals.

Trump has been frequently criticized for being soft on Russia. He has praised Putin as a “strong leader” and suggested that he agrees with the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. He also thanked Putin for expelling U.S. diplomats from Russia in August 2017 and has defended the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

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