New York Daily News

LOST IN THE WOULDS

Blames grammar slipup for denying Putin hacked Says he now trusts U.S. intel — or maybe doesn’t

- BY CHRIS SOMMERFELD­T

President Trump on Tuesday issues an insultingl­y lame walkback on his lovefest with Vladimir Putin, expecting the American public to believe he used the word “would” when he meant to say he “wouldn’t” disbelieve Russia hacked the election.

President Trump feebly backed away from his embrace of Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, claiming he misspoke when he said during a press conference with the Russian leader that he had seen no reason to believe the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election.

Trump made the claim during a brief appearance at the White House ahead of a closed-door meeting with Republican leaders.

“I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t,’” Trump told reporters, reading from a prepared statement. “The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’ sort of a double negative.”

Following a private sitdown with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday, Trump signaled during a joint press appearance that he trusts the Russian leader’s face-value denial more than the U.S. intelligen­ce community’s unanimous conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

“He just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said of Putin. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

After that remark, Trump launched into a debunked, conspiracy-theory-laden tirade about a “missing” Democratic National Committee computer server, seemingly negating his slip of the tongue excuse.

Republican­s and Democrats alike excoriated Trump for blindly putting his trust in a longtime U.S. adversary while disputing his own intelligen­ce agencies.

Trump didn’t explain Tuesday why he waited over 24 hours to correct the record on his softball conference with Putin.

The President didn’t address the supposed slipup in two back-to-back TV interviews directly following the conference, and the White House failed to mention it in a statement issued Tuesday morning that praised the meeting with the Russian leader as “bold American diplomacy.”

Dan Coats, the director of national intelligen­ce, issued a statement after Trump’s Helsinki appearance affirming the intelligen­ce community has been “clear in our assessment­s of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.”

Trump tried to extend an olive branch to the American spy agencies on Tuesday.

“I accept our intelligen­ce community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said — at which point the lights in the room bizarrely went out for at least two seconds. “That was strange. But that’s OK,” Trump said as the lights flickered back on.

But then, in yet another disavowal of U.S. intelligen­ce, Trump added, “It could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”

Despite Trump’s claims, the U.S. intelligen­ce community concluded in a January 2017 assessment that the Russian government alone interfered in the 2016 election with Putin’s knowledge and endorsemen­t. The multifacet­ed sabotage campaign was undertaken in a deliberate effort to undermine American democracy, boost Trump’s campaign and disparage Hillary Clinton, according to the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligen­ce, the FBI,

the NSA, the Justice Department and two congressio­nal intelligen­ce committees.

Special counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigat­e Trump’s campaign for potential collusion with the Kremlin — and has already secured dozens of federal indictment­s and guilty pleas.

Trump, who frequently blasts Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt,” went out of his way to assert “there was no collusion at all” during the Tuesday gaggle.

Photograph­s revealed Trump had scribbled that oftrepeate­d claim with a Sharpie on his prepared remarks — with the word “collusion” misspelled with just one “l.” The photograph­s also showed Trump had conspicuou­sly crossed out a line about bringing “anyone involved in” the Kremlin’s election meddling “to justice.”

Later Tuesday, Secretary of State Pompeo confirmed he will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week about what was discussed during Trump’s private meeting with Putin.

His grammatica­l excuse aside, Trump clearly expressed reservatio­ns about the U.S. intelligen­ce community during the Helsinki conference. “I have great confidence in my intelligen­ce people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said.

On Tuesday, Trump said he couldn’t understand why media outlets and congressio­nal lawmakers took issue with his cozying up to Putin.

“I said, ‘What is going on, what’s the big deal?’” Trump said.

Democrats didn’t buy Trump’s semantical mea culpa.

“It’s 24 hours too late, and in the wrong place,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “It tells President Putin ‘continue to take advantage of Donald Trump’ because he doesn’t have the courage, the strength, maybe not even the conviction to say to Putin’s face what he tried to say a few minutes ago.”

Democratic Rep. Jose Serrano, who’s originally from Puerto Rico and represents parts of the Bronx, took a proverbial shot at Trump after his linguistic blame game.

“Even though English was the second language I learned, I know the difference between ‘would’ and ‘wouldn’t,’” Serrano tweeted.

Immediatel­y after the Helsinki meeting Monday, Democrats and Republican­s joined forces in condemning Trump’s refusal to confront Putin, saying it amounted to treasonous behavior that will go down as a low point in American history.

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgracefu­l performanc­es by an American President in memory,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalenc­e, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.”

Trump has a history of backpedali­ng when his controvers­ial comments backfire.

During the campaign, it took Trump nearly a week to condemn David Duke after the former Ku Klux Klan leader announced his support for Trump’s White House bid. Before finally disavowing the notorious white supremacis­t, Trump had insisted he didn’t know who Duke was and that he thereby couldn’t comment.

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 ??  ?? President Trump says Tuesday he misspoke a single word on Russian hacking at already-infamous summit with Vladimir Putin. No one was buying it, least of all Dems led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (inset, at podium).
President Trump says Tuesday he misspoke a single word on Russian hacking at already-infamous summit with Vladimir Putin. No one was buying it, least of all Dems led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (inset, at podium).
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AP
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AP

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