DEMOCRATIC DEBATES
The large pool of Democrats running for president will debate over two nights this month.
WASHINGTON — Seeking to stem a bipartisan furor, President Donald Trump said Friday that he would “of course” contact the FBI if a foreign government gave him dirt on his political opponents — but not until after he looked at it first.
“If you don’t hear what it is, you’re not going to know what it is,” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “I mean, how can you report something that you don’t know?”
Mr. Trump’s revised stance did little to assuage critics who warned the president is setting the country up for a repeat of the foreign interference in the 2016 election that led to a lengthy special counsel investigation, multiple congressional inquiries and widespread concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III concluded that Kremlin-backed operatives interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic” effort that was ultimately aimed at benefiting Mr. Trump. In addition to extensive contacts with senior Trump aides, Russians released stolen Democratic Party emails and spread divisive disinformation on social media.
Mr. Trump’s willingness to accept foreign help in the 2020 race drew a chorus of criticism by elected officials, legal scholars and historians, who argued that Mr. Trump was undermining long-established norms of U.S. politics and in danger of violating federal law.
“It’s certainly clear, even after the turmoil of the last two years, the president hasn’t learned anything, or if he’s learned something, he’s learned the exact wrong lesson,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. “He’s learned that he can accept foreign help and still escape the law.”
The controversy began Wednesday after Mr. Trump told ABC News that he might not tell the FBI if a foreign government offered his campaign derogatory information on a rival.
“It’s not an interference [if] they have information,” he said. “I think I’d take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI.”