USA TODAY International Edition
Trump says he misspoke on Russia
He accepts intelligence findings of interference
WASHINGTON – Seeking to quell the furor over his support of Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russians interfered with the 2016 election – but that others could have been involved as well.
“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place – could be other people also,” Trump said at the White House.
“A lot of people out there,” he said. Trump spoke before a meeting with Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee a day after he faced bipartisan criticism for pro-Putin comments at Monday’s summit in Helsinki.
The president said both the United States and Russia were to blame for frosty relations, and he accepted Putin’s denial of Moscow’s interference in the election despite the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community.
“I have great confidence in my intelligence people,” Trump said Monday in Helsinki with the Russian president at his side, “but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
Trump said he reviewed a video of his remarks with Putin after seeing the negative attention they received. He said that he misspoke during the news conference and that he meant to say he saw no reason why it “wouldn’t” be Russia that interfered in the election.
Citing “a key sentence in my remarks,” Trump said, “I said the word
‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t.’ ... The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t,’ or ‘why it wouldn’t be Russia.’ “
According to the news conference transcript, Trump said, “I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia.
“I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.”
Trump said Russian activity had “no impact at all” on his Electoral College victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s critics showed no signs of backing down.
Lawmakers from both parties discussed possible legislation to counter some of the president’s moves, ranging from restricting tariff authority to placing more sanctions on Russia if it interferes with the 2018 congressional elections or the 2020 presidential contest.
“We understand the Russian threat, and I think that is the widespread view here in the United States Senate among members of both parties,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., in discussing possible sanctions legislation against Putin’s government.
“It really better not happen again in 2018,” he said later.
Trump said his administration is doing “everything in our power” to prevent Russian interference in the 2018 balloting, and “we have a lot of power.”
Congressional Democrats mocked what Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York described as Trump’s attempt to “squirm away” from his Monday comments. “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,” Schumer said.
Democrats, and some Republicans, want to know what Trump and Putin discussed in secret for about two hours Monday.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced Tuesday it is ready to implement an international security agreement Putin and Trump reached, but it did not specify what it was.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who joked that Putin probably celebrated the Trump meeting with caviar, applauded the bipartisan criticism of the American president.
“As the president taxes Americans with tariffs, he pushes away our allies and further strengthens Putin,” tweeted Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. “It is time for Congress to step up and take back our authorities.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump blamed the media for misinterpreting his remarks in Helsinki and defended the Putin news conference by citing the thoughts of a rare supporter who stuck up for him: Sen. Rand Paul.
“Thank you @RandPaul, you really get it!” Trump tweeted, citing a comment by the Kentuckian that “the President has gone through a year and a half of totally partisan investigations – what’s he supposed to think?”
Paul was one of the few Republicans to defend the president after he accepted Putin’s denials that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, despite the conclusions of U.S. intelligence officials that Russians hacked Democratic officials and pushed phony news to help Trump.
Trump condemned the investigation of Russia as a “disaster” driving a wedge between the countries.
The Putin news conference capped off a European trip in which he criticized NATO and described the European Union as a “foe.”
Republicans said Putin has long sought to divide Western countries he sees as rivals and Trump’s comments played into that agenda.
McConnell refused to critique Trump’s performance, but the Senate Republican leader said on Capitol Hill that he wants to deliver a message from Congress to NATO and the EU: U.S. allies are well aware of the threat from Moscow.
In both houses of Congress, Republicans blasted the Trump-Putin summit and distanced themselves from Trump’s assertion that both the United States and Moscow were to blame for international friction.
Pushing back against the White House in unusually strong terms, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., described Putin’s Russia as a “menacing government” and said he had no doubt that the Kremlin attempted to influence the outcome of the election.
“Russia is trying to undermine democracy itself, to de-legitimize democracy, so for some reason, they can look good by comparison,” Ryan said.
Trump defended his meeting with Putin during his comments at the White House, saying he and his Russian counterpart discussed ways to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Trump described his meeting with Putin as “our most successful visit” of the European tour last week.
Less than a week ago, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted a dozen Russians on charges involving election interference.
“As the president taxes Americans with tariffs, he pushes away our allies and further strengthens Putin.”
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.