Trump ‘misspoke’ on Russian interference
Blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of a longtime US enemy, President Donald Trump strained yesterday to ‘‘clarify’’ his public undermining of American intelligence agencies, saying he simply misspoke when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 US election.
Rebuked as never before by his own party, including a stern pushback from usually reserved Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the president sought to end 27 hours of recrimination by delivering a rare admission of error.
‘‘The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia’’’ instead of ‘‘why it would,’’ Trump said of the comments he had made standing alongside Vladimir Putin at this week’s summit stage in Helsinki.
That didn’t explain why Trump, who had tweeted a half-dozen times and sat for two television interviews since the Putin news conference, waited so long to correct his remarks. And the scripted cleanup pertained only to the least defensible of his comments.
He didn’t reverse other statements in which he gave clear credence to Putin’s ‘‘extremely strong and powerful’’ denial of Russian involvement, raised doubts about his own intelligence agencies’ conclusions and advanced discredited conspiracy theories about election meddling.
He also accused past American leaders, rather than Russia’s destabilising actions in the US and around the world, for the souring of relations between two countries. And he did not address his other problematic statements during a week-long Europe tour, in which he sent the Nato alliance into emergency session and assailed British Prime Minister Theresa May as she was hosting him for an official visit.
‘‘I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,’’ Trump conceded yesterday. But even then he made a point of adding, ‘‘It could be other people also. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all.’’
Moments earlier, McConnell felt the need to reassure America’s allies in Europe with whom Trump clashed during his frenzied trip last week.
With no if’s or but’s, the GOP leader declared, ‘‘The European countries are our friends, and the Russians are not.’’
By dusk, hundreds of activists, led by attorney Michael Avenatti and actress Alyssa Milano, staged a protest near the White House, with chants of ‘‘traitor!’’ echoing along Pennsylvania Avenue.
On Capitol Hill, top Republican leaders said they were open to slapping fresh sanctions on Russia, but they showed no sign of acting any time soon.
‘‘Let’s be very clear, just so everybody knows: Russia did meddle with our elections,’’ said House Speaker Paul Ryan, another steady Trump political ally. ‘‘What we intend to do is make sure they don’t get away with it again and also to help our allies.’’
After his walkback, Trump said his administration would ‘‘move aggressively’’ to repel efforts to interfere in American elections.
‘‘We are doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018,’’ he said. –