Donald Trump faces outrage in US
Even Prez’s closest supporters describe it as biggest mistake in his rule
Washington, Jul 17: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday faced political outrage in the US for not backing the American intelligence community’s claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, following the Helsinki summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
From describing his comments at the joint press conference as disgraceful, shameful to treacherous, even some of his closest supporters described Trump’s statements as the most serious mistake of his presidency. Trump, who arrived here after his week-long trip to Europe, has defended his comments.
As I said today and many times before, ‘I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people’. However, I also recognise that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! Trump said in a tweet aboard Air Force One on his way back home. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace, than to risk peace in pursuit of politics, he said, adding that a productive dialogue is not only good for the US and Russia, but is also good for the world.
US analysts said Trump refused to convincingly state that the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election at his press conference with Putin after their first summit meeting.
They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said, adding that he does not “see any reason why it would be” Russia. — PTI