Trump reverses Russia stance
President says he misspoke, backs U.S. intel
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, seeking to stanch a national furor, said on Tuesday that he misspoke at his Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, and meant to say that he does in fact see Russia as the culprit that interfered in the 2016 election, just as U.S. intelligence agencies have found.
The president’s new version was unlikely to satisfy many critics. It is undercut by his full, widely watched remarks on Monday, which gave weight to Putin’s denials while criticizing the United States.
To many, Trump had missed his chance to speak truth to power alongside Russia’s president. He made his correction to reporters at the White House, as he sat alongside Republican lawmakers.
In his attempt to walk back his remarks in Finland after meeting one-on-one with Putin, Trump said he accepts the consensus of American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election. Yet in a sign that he cannot fully accept those findings— seeing them as a challenge to his election legitimacy — he added that the perpetrators “couldbe other people also.” That assertion is not supported by known intelligence.
At a Helsinki news conference, as Putin looked on, Trump said the following to a reporter’s question about whether he believedU.S. intelligence agencies, or Putin’s denials of interference: “My people came to me ... they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reasonwhy itwould be” Russia.
On Tuesday, however, he said this: “The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be’ Russia.”
“I have the strongest respect for our intelligence agencies, headed by my people,” Trump told the reporters at a hastily scheduled session ahead of his meeting with some House Republicans about additional tax cuts.
He also said, “We’re doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018,” referring to midterm elections.
Trump afterward ignored questions that reporters shouted, including whether he would criticize Putin, as WhiteHouse aides pushed them out of the Cabinet room.
The day before, the president had blamed theUnited States for sour relations with Russia and criticized the FBI, Democrats, Hillary Clinton and the special counsel’s investigation of Russia’s election activities and possible Trump campaign complicity — all as Putin, occasionally smiling, stood feet away in the Finland presidential palace.
The scene almost instantly drew condemnation as it played out on television screens in the U.S. Trump, who repeatedly praised and deferred to Putin, was criticized by foreign policy and national security veterans as weak, an insult that is particularly galling to him.
In two subsequent interviews with FoxNews and in his tweets after the summit, Trump sounded defensive, and more surprised and frustrated by the reaction than contrite.
He did not, however, make any attempt to correct his remarks until more than 24 hours later.
“I came back and I said: ‘What is going on? What’s the big deal?’ ” Trump said Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said hewas not buying Trump’s correction.
“President Trump tried to squirm away from what he said yesterday. It’s 24 hours late and in the wrong place,” he said. “If the president can’t say directly to President Putin that he is wrong and we are right and our intelligence agencies are right, it’s ineffective and, worse, another sign of weakness.”
Trump faced growing pressure from Republicans to either recant his remarks or change the subject to one that unites his party, such as tax cuts.
For many Republicans, the issue goes beyond politics. Opposition to Russia’s aggressive behavior and authoritarian rule has long been a core aspect of party
ideology.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., quickly condemned Trump’s comments in Helsinki, though he did not name Trump. “The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” he said.
And while Ryan reiterated that he thought special counsel Robert Mueller should be allowed to finish his probe, he did not promise to let up on House Republicans’ attempts to undermine the investigation by echoing Trump’s claims of bias.
The speaker and other House Republican leaders tried to change the subject to taxes and the economy during their weekly news conference. But Ryan was bombarded with questions about Trump’s Helsinki performance, whether it damaged American interests and whether Congress would do anything beyond expressing regret.
Democrats were eager to keep the subject alive, calling for hearings, resolutions reaffirming American intelligence assessments and measures lending money to states to protect their voting systems from hacking. One proposal was for a hearing to question the U.S. interpreter who, along with a Russian translator, were the only people in the room with Trump and Putin when, in a break from typical summits, the leaders met privately for more than two hoursMonday.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Trump’s efforts at damage control “embarrasses our nation even further.”
“Afterwatching the President cower in front of Putin, the American people now deserve to know what Trump will do now,” Pelosi said in a statement.