Trump buys Putin’s poll meddling denial
Russia meddling in US polls hounds leaders
HANOI— In his 12-day tour of Asia, US President Donald Trump found one issue that he couldn’t leave behind in Washington—Russian meddling in the US elections that helped Trump win. Though he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin about it previously, Trump asked Putin again when the two met at the Apec Summit in Vietnam. “He means it,” Trump said of Putin’s fresh denial.
HANOI— US President Donald Trump sent confusing messages about Russian meddling in the US elections that he won, saying he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sincerity in denying it, but also saying he believed US intelligence agencies that came to conclude that Russia did interfere. “I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election,” Trump said of Putin at a news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi. “As to whether I believe it, I’m with our agencies,” Trump said. “As currently led by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies,” he added. The US intelligence community had concluded that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said that Putin again vehemently denied the allegations—this time at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Vietnam.
Trump said he believed “that when he tells me that, he means it.”
Trump had dismissed former US intelligence officials as “political hacks” and accused Democrats of using the issue to sabotage relations between the two countries, putting lives at risk.
Repeated denials
At the news conference, Trump reiterated his view that it’s crucial for the United States to get along with Russia and seemed to suggest that it was time to remove the sanctions Congress has slapped on Russia in retaliation for its election meddling efforts.
“It’s now time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken,” said Trump. “Those are very important things.”
As he traveled to Hanoi, the second-tolast stop of his Asia trip, Trump told reporters that Putin “said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.”
“Every time he sees me, he said: ‘I didn’t do that.’ And I believe—I really believe—that when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump said, calling the accusation an “artificial barrier” erected by Democrats.
Trump lashed out at the former heads of the nation’s intelligence community and said there were plenty of reasons to be suspicious of their findings. “I mean, give me a break. They’re political hacks,” Trump said, citing by name James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence; John Brennan, the former CIA director; and James Comey, his ousted FBI director.