Putin ‘probably’ involved in killings, but not in US: Trump
CBS INTERVIEW Challenges claim that he has been reluctant of criticising Putin WASHINGTON:
US President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was “probably” involved in assassinations and poisonings, but “it’s not in our country”.
Trump made the remarks in a CBS News interview aired on Sunday night where he also spoke about his relationship with North Korea, China, Russia, and his own West Wing staffers and Cabinet.
When asked about the accusation that he was reluctant of criticising Putin, he challenged the question.
“I think I’m very tough with him personally. I had a meeting with him, the two of us,” Trump said, referring to his much-criticised summit with the Russian leader in which he declined at a press conference to endorse the US government’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
“It was a very tough meeting, and it was a very good meeting.”
Asked whether he thought Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election, Trump said he did not think that it was just Russia.
“They meddled. But I think China meddled, too. And I think other countries... And I think, frankly, China is a bigger problem,” he said.
Trump also backed off from his claim that climate change is a “hoax”, but accused climate scientists of having a “very big political agenda”. Trump had in June last year pulled the US out of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.
The comments come less than a week after climate scientists issued a final call to halt rising temperatures.
In an interview, Trump accused scientists of having a “very big political agenda” and asserted that he does not want to put the US, the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, at a disadvantage in responding to climate change.
Asked whether he still thinks climate change is a hoax, Trump said, “I think something’s happening. Something’s changing and it’ll change back again. I don’t think it’s a hoax, I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s manmade.”
“I will say this. I don’t wanna give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don’t wanna lose millions and millions of jobs. I don’t wanna be put at a disadvantage,” the US president said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Monday downplayed televised comments by Trump that Putin was “probably” involved in asssassinations and poisonings, saying they did not amount to a direct accusation.
“The US president didn’t make any direct accusations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists after a CBS News interviewer asked Trump: “Do you agree that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations? In poisonings?” and he answered: “Probably he is, yeah.”