Reuters
On the defensive after a European trip that drew criticism from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he misspoke when he appeared to favor the denial of Vladimir Putin over the assessment by U.S. intelligence that Russia interfered in the U.S. election.
‘I SAID WOULD INSTEAD OF WOULDN’T’
“I’ve said this many times -- I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said. “Could be other people also; there’s a lot of people out there.”
Trump said, after reviewing a transcript of his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he misspoke when he said, on Monday, that he didn’t see any reasons why Russia would interfere.
“I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “Just to repeat it, I said ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t.’”
Trump says he offered his full faith and support for America’s intelligence agencies. “We are doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018,” he added.
Also read: Is Trump treasonous? Here’s the legal and historical answer to that charge[1]
The president still put the blame on his predecessor for the hacking done on behalf of Trump. “President Obama was given information just prior to the election, last election 2016 and they decided to not do anything about it. The reason they decided not to do that was pretty obvious to all, they thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election,” Trump said.
TRUMP THANKS PAUL
Earlier, Trump thanked one of the few Republicans who came to his defense, after Trump in Helsinki put the denial from Putin [2]on the same footing as the assessment of U.S. intelligence of Russia’s interference in American elections.
Thank you @RandPaul[3]. “The President has gone through a year and a half of totally partisan investigations - what’s he supposed to think?”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, publicly defended Trump on several TV networks. Paul said both Democrats and the “neoconservative and war mongers on the right” objected to even meeting with Putin.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, for a second day, took a different stance. Russia “did interfere in our elections. There’s no doubt about that.” Ryan said he would be open to additional sanctions of Russia.
Related: ‘Shameful,’ ‘disturbing,’ and an ‘embarrassment’ — Congress reacts to Trump’s press conference...