‘Misspoke’ claim as critics get vitriolic
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump yesterday tried to calm a storm over his failure to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for meddling in the 2016 US election, saying he misspoke in a joint news conference in Helsinki.
Trump stunned the world on Tuesday by shying away from criticising the Russian leader for Moscow’s actions to undermine the election and cast doubt on US intelligence agencies, prompting calls by some US lawmakers for tougher sanctions and other actions to punish Russia.
‘‘I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’,’’ Trump told reporters at the White House, more than 24 hours after his appearance with Putin. ‘‘The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia’.’’
Although he faced pressure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump said not a single disparaging word in public about Moscow on any of the issues that have brought relations between the two nuclear powers to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.
Republicans and Democrats accused him of siding with an adversary rather than his own country.
Despite a televised interview and numerous postings to Twitter, Trump did not correct himself until 27 hours later. Reading mainly from a prepared statement, Trump yesterday said he had complete faith in US intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusions.
He then veered from his script to hedge on who was responsible for the election interference: ‘‘It could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.’’
His backtracking failed to quell the controversy. Democrats dismissed Trump’s statement as political damage control.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s comments on Tuesday were another sign of weakness, particularly his statement that it ‘‘could be other people’’ responsible for the election meddling.‘‘It shows the weakness of President Trump that he is afraid to confront Mr Putin directly.’’ — Reuters