I MISSPOKE ON RUSSIAN MEDDLING, TRUMP SAYS

BACKTRACKS AFTER BIPARTISAN CONDEMNATION

WASHINGTON • Following a firestorm of criticism, President Donald Trump said he misspoke when he appeared to undermine American intelligence services in front of Vladimir Putin.

The president said he wanted to clarify a statement he made a day earlier in Helsinki.

His mistake was to use the word “would” instead of “wouldn’t”, he said, when referring to American intelligence agencies saying Russia interferred in the 2016 U.S. election.

At a Helsinki press conference Trump said, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

The statement drew blistered bipartisan condemnation. It was called “treasonous,” “shameful,” ”disgraceful, “and ”weak.”

On Tuesday, the president called an afternoon press conference to clarify his remarks.

He said he thought the summit had gone well and was initially confused by the angry reaction, asking himself “What’s going on? What’s the big deal?”

He then looked at a transcript of his answers and realized he had misspoken, he said.

“I realized there is a need for clarification,” he said. “It should have been obvious, I thought it would have been obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t. In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word would instead of wouldn’t.

“The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’ Sort of a double negative.

“I think that probably clarifies things pretty much by itself.”

He added, “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.” But he then said, “It could be other people also. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all.”

Trump’s comments at Helsinki shocked even his most stout supporters.

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former communications director, said the president made a “strategic mistake”.

“He’s got to speak out about it, and he’s got to reverse course immediately,” Scaramucci said during an appearance on CNN. “The optics of this situation are a disaster...if he doesn’t reverse course on this, he will eventually lose people who want to support him.”

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican house speaker, called it “the most serious mistake of his presidency,” which “must be corrected immediately”.

Earlier, Trump appeared to dismiss the storm of criticism, tweeting that his meeting with NATO allies last week was “great” but “had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way — the Fake News is going Crazy!”

Before Trump’s clarification, Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell issued a public reassurance to U.S. allies in NATO and Europe with whom Trump clashed during his frenzied Europe trip last week.

“The European countries are our friends, and the russians are not ,” Mcconnell said.

“Let’s be very clear, just so everybody knows: Russia did meddle with our elections,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“What we intend to do is make sure they don’t get away with it again and also to help our allies.”

In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top officials to appear before Congress and explain exactly what happened during Trump’s two-hour private session with Putin.

Schumer also said the president had “tried to squirm away from what he said yesterday.”

“It’s twenty-four hours too late, and in the wrong place,” Schumer said in a tweet.