Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainThe electoral reality that the media ignores Kelly's lead widens to 10 points in Arizona Senate race: poll COVID response shows a way forward on private gun sale checks MORE (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday that allegations President Trump shared highly classified information with top Russian officials are "deeply disturbing," becoming the latest GOP lawmaker to raise concerns over the meeting.

"The reports that the President shared sensitive intelligence with Russian officials are deeply disturbing," McCain said in a statement.

McCain also knocked the president for not using last week's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to discuss areas where the United States and Moscow disagree.

"Regrettably, the time President Trump spent sharing sensitive information with the Russians was time he did not spend focusing on Russia’s aggressive behavior, including its interference in American and European elections, its illegal invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, its other destabilizing activities across Europe, and the slaughter of innocent civilians and targeting of hospitals in Syria," he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

McCain has criticized Trump's warmer stance toward Russia for months and backs imposing new sanctions against Moscow.

But he joins Republicans raising concerns in the wake of a Washington Post report alleging that Trump shared "code-word information" during the Oval Office meeting.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) told MSNBC that "It's not helpful that this was with the Russians, right? I mean this is just weird."

The White House pushed back in the immediate wake of The Washington Post story , with national security advisor H.R. McMaster told reporters at the White House that "the story that came out tonight, as reported, is false."

But Trump appeared to defend sharing information with Russian officials on Twitter saying he had an "absolute right" to discuss facts.