DONALD Trump has said he meant the opposite when he said in Helsinki that he does not see why Russia would have interfered in the 2016 US election.
Back at the White House last night, the president told reporters that he said he meant he does not see why Russia “wouldn’t” be responsible.
He also said he accepts the American intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election, but he denied that his campaign had colluded in the effort.
“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said, reading from a prepared statement in front of reporters at the White House.
But he added: “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”
Trump said he had full “faith and support” in US intelligence agencies and would take “strong action” to repel; any efforts to interfere in the 2018 election. Trump spoke a day after returning to the US to nearly universal condemnation of his performance at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side in Helsinki.
Putin said he wanted Trump to win the race against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Yesterday he insisted that “fake news” was “going crazy” amidst criticism of the summit.
Trump said ex-KGB agent Putin had been “extremely strong and powerful in his denial” of Russian meddling.
The comments drew criticism from across the political spectrum, with ex-CIA director John Brennan calling Trump’s remarks “nothing short of treasonous”, while former Republican national committee chair Michael Steele compared the two to an intelligence service “asset” and their “handler”.
Democrat senator Nancy Pelosi questioned “what does Putin have on Trump that’s he’s so afraid?” and Republican senator Bob Corker had said the exchange made America “look like a pushover”.
Meanwhile, senator John McCain – who lost out to Barack Obama in the 2008 race for the White House – accused the president of having made a “conscious choice to defend a tyrant” and achieving “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory”.
Yesterday Trump hit back, saying the Helsinki summit had been “even better” than the Nato meeting that preceded it. “I had a great meeting with Nato,” he tweeted.
“They have paid $33 billion more and will pay hundreds of billions of dollars more in the future, only because of me.
He added: “Nato was weak, but now it is strong again (bad for Russia).
“The media only says I was rude to leaders, never mentions the money! While I had a great meeting with Nato, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia.
“Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the fake news is going crazy!”
Last week federal indictments accused 12 Russians of hacking into Democratic email accounts to damage Hillary Clinton in 2016.
On Monday, Trump said it was a “shame” journalists had asked questions about the Russia probe when they were trying to discuss issues like Syria and nuclear proliferation.
He said: “We’ve had a phony witch hunt deal drive us apart.”
Meanwhile US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Russia not to meddle in the US mid-term elections in November.
McConnell said: “It really better not happen again in 2018.”
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