Now Trump says Russia did meddle in poll
DONALD Trump has backtracked on comments he made at his summit with Russian premier Vladimir Putin that Russia had no impact on the American presidential elections.
The US President claimed he mixed up his words at their joint press conference on Monday, and instead meant to say he saw no reason why it was not Russia that interfered in the 2016 election.
He told reporters at the White House last night that he was completely behind the US intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusions that Russia had meddled in the vote.
‘The full faith and support for America’s intelligence agencies – I have a full faith in our intelligence agencies,’ he said.
He added that Russian actions had no
‘I have full faith in our intelligence agencies’
impact on the outcome of the vote and the administration would work aggressively to protect the November 2018 congressional elections.
While standing alongside Mr Putin at the news conference in Helsinki on Monday, Mr Trump was asked if he believed the conclusions of US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election in an effort to help him defeat his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr Trump said he was not convinced it was Moscow. ‘I don’t see any reason why it would be,’ he said. ‘President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.’ Mr Trump yesterday hit back at other criticism of his meeting with Mr Putin. He said the summit in Helsinki was ‘even better’ than his meeting with Nato allies last week in Brussels.
He is facing criticism in particular for his refusal to publicly challenge Mr Putin.
Mr Trump’s backers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate foreign relations chairman Bob Corker, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich have attacked his performance.
Mr Trump took aim at a familiar target, the media, yesterday tweeting: ‘While I had a great meeting with Nato, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia.’ He added: ‘ Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!’
As Mr Trump spoke yesterday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly accidentally turned off the lights by leaning against the switch. The President joked: ‘Whoops, they just turned off the lights – that must be the intelligence agencies. That was strange. But that’s OK.’