President Donald Trump on Tuesday responded to scathing criticism from across the political spectrum of his performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki.
“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said, before adding. “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”
He also said that his administration is committed to securing the nation’s election systems, and “will stop it and repel it [if there are] any efforts to interfere in our election.”
Trump made the remarks at the beginning of a meeting with Republican lawmakers at the White House.
Trump’s press conference Monday with Putin stunned the world, not least because the president appeared to endorse Putin’s denial of Russian election meddling over the conclusions reached by Trump’s own intelligence agencies that Russia did, in fact, interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
“I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer,” Trump said on Monday.
Trump also did not hold Putin publicly accountable for Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, its backing of the Assad regime in Syria, its use of a nerve agent to poison a Kremlin political opponent on British soil or its destabilizing activities across Europe.
Reactions to his press conference were instantaneous and almost universally negative. The conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board called Trump’s joint press conference “a personal and national embarrassment.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”
“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,” McCain said.
Former CIA director John Brennan said in a tweet that the press conference was “nothing short of treasonous.”
Even some of the president most ardent supporters, like radio host Laura Ingraham, refused to endorse his performance. “The president seems to give credence to Vladimir Putin’s assurances over the Senate, the House, and our intel agencies, Dan Coats, and that’s not good,” Ingraham said on her syndicated radio program Monday. “And I think he let the frustration of this investigation get the better of him,” she said.
Indeed, Trump used the press conference to essentially let Russia off the hook, saying he held “both countries responsible” for the fact that Russia’s illegal actions in Ukraine and elsewhere have damaged the bilateral relationship. The president also railed against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in 2016, and repeated false conspiracy theories about his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Trump also endorsed what he called an “incredible offer” by Putin, to permit American agencies to interview 12 Russians who were indicted Friday for election meddling, provided that the United States made Russian targets available for questioning by the Kremlin.
