Trump: I meant to say ‘wouldn’t’
BACKTRACKING: PRESIDENT ‘MISSPOKE’ ON PUTIN
Last night White House says Russia still poses a threat to US electoral system.
Washington
US President Donald Trump 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 Monday 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’.”
Trump, who had the opportunity to publicly rebuke Putin during the news conference in Helsinki, instead praised him for his “strong and powerful” denial of the conclusions of US intelligence agencies that the Russian state meddled in the election. Standing alongside Putin in Helsinki, Trump told reporters he was not convinced it was Moscow. “I don’t see any reason why it would be,” he said.
Trump did not correct himself until 27 hours later. Reading mainly from a prepared statement, Trump said on Tuesday he had complete faith in US intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusions.
He then hedged on who was responsible for the election interference, saying: “It could be other people also.”
Despite facing pressure 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. But yesterday he claimed no president has been as “tough” on Russia as he has.
US intelligence chief Dan Coats said on Monday that Russia was involved in “ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy”. The White House said late yesterday that Russia continued to pose a threat to the US electoral system. “We believe the threat still exists, which is why we are taking steps to prevent it,” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said.
Republican lawmakers called for information on exactly what was discussed in Helsinki. Democrats urged Senate leaders to subpoena Trump’s translator and the summit notes.