Trump calls panned Putin summit a success
Amid furor, president promises ‘big results’
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump struggled Wednesday to contain the furor over his summit with Vladimir Putin, giving conflicting signals about whether he believes Russia is still a threat to American elections.
For a third day, Trump and his aides were in damage control mode in the face of criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers dismayed by the president’s friendly demeanor toward Putin and his failure to confront the Russian leader about Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump started the day insisting on Twitter that the Helsinki meeting with the Russian president had been a success and those blasting it were afflicted with “Trump Derangement Syndrome!”
After a morning Cabinet meeting, when asked whether the Russians are still targeting the United States, Trump said “no” twice. Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, warned this week that Russia is engaged in “ongoing, pervasive efforts” to meddle in American elections.
That afternoon, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tried to clarify Trump’s comments, saying the president’s “no” was meant to make clear he didn’t want to respond to reporters’ questions. “We believe that the threat still exists” and are taking actions to block Russian cyberattacks, Sanders said.
Trump toughened his message, telling CBS News he holds Putin personally responsible for Russian activity in the U.S. election “because he’s in charge of the country, just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country.”
Trump claimed he told Putin: “We can’t have this. We’re not going to have it. And that’s the way it’s going to be.”
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., promised to question Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the meeting with Putin during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week.
“I’ll take a back seat to no one in the United States Senate on challenging what happened at NATO, what happened in Helsinki,” Corker said. “I take a back seat to no one on pressing this administration for some of the worst things that I’ve seen happen in public as it relates to our country.”
Taking to Twitter to defend his meeting with Putin, Trump said, “Russia has agreed to help with North Korea,” and the two leaders “discussed many important subjects” at their summit, though he did not provide details.
“We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match,” Trump said. “Big results will come!”
The president’s tweets did not address the reason the meeting triggered such a furor: Trump’s suggestion that he believed Putin’s denials of Russian election interference despite the conclusions of U.S. intelligence officials who have pursued criminal charges against Russian nationals.
“Mr. President, it is time to stop taking the word of a KGB agent over that of your own intelligence officials,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate’s top Democrat.
Trump walked back his comments Tuesday at the White House, saying, “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.”
He added there “could be other people also . ... A lot of people out there.”
Trump said he misspoke during the Putin news conference, saying he used the word “would” rather that “wouldn’t” in discussing Russian meddling. The president said he meant to say, “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.”
The attempted clarification did not persuade critics who said Trump is more supportive of adversaries such as Putin than of allies such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Contributing: Michael Collins and Herb Jackson