Trump has been offering Putin 'gifts' when he should be punished for troop bounties: Ex-Gop House Intel chair

Mike Rogers, the former Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, had some stern words for President Donald Trump over his handling of alleged Russian-funded bounties placed on American troops in Afghanistan.

During an interview with CNN's John Berman, Rogers said that the White House didn't seem to understand the significance of the bounty story, and had changed its messaging on it multiple times in just the last few days.

"My concern was they spent more time in the first three days trying to tell folks that it was either fake news or it wasn't important or I didn't know," he said. "All of that's nonsense. I would have felt better if the president would have come out and said, 'You know what, I didn't get that brief, or at least I don't remember getting that brief, and by the end of the day, I'm going to get that brief.'"

Rogers went on to hammer the president for continuing to butter up Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time when his government is allegedly funding the targeted killings of American soldiers.

"You don't run out and invite, you know, Vladimir Putin back to the G7 right in the midst of him paying cash, maybe, to the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers or our allies," he said. "I mean, there has to be consequences for that kind of behavior, and inviting him to the G7 isn't it, right? That's a gift."

Watch the video below.