White House Reportedly Avoiding Joint Summit Presser Because ‘Putin Seemed to Get the Better of Mr. Trump in Helsinki’
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President Joe Biden has a planned diplomatic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin for Wednesday and has opted not to follow their discussions with a joint press conference, which is typical for such an event, but instead will host a news conference solo.
The reason? According to a New York Times report, Biden administration officials saw how Putin appeared to get the better of former President Donald Trump in the joint press conference in Helsinki in 2018 and want to avoid the same outcome. Writing for the NY Times, Michael Shear reports:
Top aides to Mr. Biden said that during negotiations over the meetings, to be held at an 18th-century Swiss villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, the Russian government was eager to have Mr. Putin join Mr. Biden in a news conference. But Biden administration officials said that they were mindful of how Mr. Putin seemed to get the better of Mr. Trump in Helsinki.
What happened in Helsinki that has given Biden administration officials pause? Well, we don’t really know what happened during private discussions as there were no other individuals present, and the interpreter present was instructed to conceal all notes from the meeting.
But in the press conference that followed, then President Trump famously noted that he took Putin’s word over his own intelligence agencies when it came to now confirmed reports that Russian intelligence operations interfered in the 2016 general election, though the degree of its influence is still unknown.
Trump later cleaned up the gaffe in comments to the media, saying, “I have full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies. Always have. And I have felt very strongly that while Russia’s actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying that — and I’ve said this many times, I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.” The President immediately added, “Could be other people also.”
Following the Helsinki summit, Matt Drudge reported in a massive headline at the time “Putin Dominates Trump in Helsinki.”
During the first foreign trip of his administration, Biden has participated in talks with fellow leaders of G7 nations, NATO talks, and other diplomatic events with various royalty. He has stepped back from his previous comments in calling Putin a “killer” and instead seemed to fluff the Russian president, calling him a “worthy adversary.”
