In the 24 frenetic hours following Monday's stunning revelation that President Trump disclosed classified information to alleged Russian intelligence operatives because, incredibly, he may not have known any better, the spirits of many of the intrepid men and women of the West Wing appeared to have finally reached their collective breaking point. (Unfortunate, actually, because it does not appear that the next 24 hours will be any kinder to them.)

After the White House issued a flurry of indignant denials and blistering invectives against the disloyal scoundrels who had the audacity to share evidence of the administration's rank incompetence with reporters, President Trump fired up his Twitter machine and admitted on Tuesday morning the veracity of the story that his minions had just spent the previous night publicly downplaying. Unsurprisingly, these weary company men took their gripes straight to the press. Yes, the Trump White House has always been leaky as hell, but man, these quotes are nonetheless astonishing. From Politico:

One adviser who often speaks to the president said the conversation was likely freewheeling in the Oval Office, and he probably wanted to impress the officials.

"He doesn't really know any boundaries. He doesn't think in those terms," this adviser said. "He doesn't sometimes realize the implications of what he's saying. I don't think it was his intention in any way to share any classified information. He wouldn't want to do that."

Side note: None of these anonymous sources deserve praise, really, because if you're a public servant who genuinely believes that your boss is unfit at best and treasonous at worst, the correct, noble, and patriotic response is to grow a backbone and quit. Publicly, these people continue to close ranks because they understand that as soon as one of them gets cold feet, this weight of this administration's incompetence will come crashing down on the rest of them in short order, too. In private, though? They have some stuff to get off their chests. Here's another source speaking with the Daily Beast, piling on: