Trump Explains Putin Presser: I Meant to Say Maybe Russia Did Meddle in Election
President Donald Trump has now walked back his comments yesterday throwing his own intelligence agencies under the bus.
Standing next to Vladimir Putin yesterday in Helsinki, Trump went ahead and questioned the intel assessment, saying he sees “no reason” why they would have interfered.
But in comments to reporters today, he said the following:
“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.”
He also went on to make this odd claim:
MORE: Trump says he meant to say in Helsinki that he saw no reason why it would not be Russia that interfered in elections
— Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) July 17, 2018
“I said the word would instead of wouldn’t” is a sentence the President of the United States tried to argue to explain himself today.
As one reporter pointed out after Trump’s remarks…
While Trump says he accepts the intel community assessment that meddling took place, he says it could be other people also. (Per WH pool)
That statement is a contradiction given the intel community concluded that RUSSIA meddled.
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) July 17, 2018
You can watch above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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