PRESIDENT U-TURNS ON MEDDLING
DONALD Trump has claimed he meant the opposite when he said he did not see why Russia would have interfered in the 2016 US election.
At the White House yesterday, the president said he accepts the American intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election – but denied that campaign had colluded in the effort.
He added: “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia’, instead of, ‘Why it would’.
“There was no collusion at all. It could be other people also.”
Trump had earlier hit back at criticism of his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The US leader called the Monday summit in Helsinki “even better” than his meeting with Nato allies in Brussels.
He faced cross-party criticism for his refusal to publicly challenge Putin over Russia’s election hacking and for doubting US intelligence conclusions about Russian meddling in the campaign.
Trump backers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have criticised his performance.
Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger mocked him, describing him as a “wet noodle” and a “fan boy”.
But the president took aim at a familiar target, the media, tweeting that his Nato meeting was “great” but that he “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.”