President Trump is holding his first Cabinet meeting after spending a week overseas where he cast doubt on existing international alliances and neglected to rebuke Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Back home, fallout continues over the president’s most recent comments made in Helsinki, Finland standing alongside a known adversary to the United States.
On Monday in an effort to dispel concerns that the president still had doubts over his own intelligence communities reports, Mr. Trump claimed he accepts the findings of the U.S. intelligence community that Russians interfered in the 2016 election. He also said he misspoke when he suggested otherwise in a widely criticized press conference with Putin on Monday.
“I have full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies, I always have,” Mr. Trump said. “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 have said this many times, I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place. It could be other people, also. There are lots of people out there.”
The president tweeted earlier Wednesday, saying that even “higher ends” of the intelligence community “loved” his press conference with Putin, teasing that “big results will come” from it.
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