From The Washington Post:
HANOI — President Trump said Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin again denied his nation tampered in the U.S. presidential election last year when the two men spoke during brief conversations on the sidelines of an international summit…
“He said he didn’t meddle,” Trump said, answering questions in the press cabin on the Air Force One. “I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. … He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did…”
“This is really an artificial barrier that’s put in front of us for solving problems with Russia,” Trump said. Of Putin, he added: “He says that very strongly, he really seems to be insulted by it and he says he didn’t do it. He is very, very strong in the fact that he didn’t do it. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently, says he has nothing to do with that. Now, you are not going to get into an argument, you are going to start talking about Syria and the Ukraine…”
“There was no collusion,” Trump said on the plane. “Everybody knows there was no collusion.” The president added that he is determined to enlist Moscow’s help to end the civil war in Syria and to ramp up pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
He said the investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia could hurt those efforts. “I think it’s a shame that something like that could destroy a very important potential relationship between two countries that are really important countries,” Trump said…
Trump did not answer when asked during the flight to Hanoi whether he believed Putin’s denial of the tampering.
“Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that,'” Trump said, “but I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. … I think he’s very insulted by it and that’s not a good thing for our country.”
The Russia investigation is an “artificial Democratic hit job” that “gets in the way,” Trump added. “And that’s a shame. Because people will die because of it” in Syria and elsewhere. “It’s artificially induced and that’s shame.”
So, to recap, all U.S. intelligence agencies agree that Russia meddled in our election, but the KGB-trained autocrat accused of masterminding the interference denies it, and that’s good enough for Trump. Nothing more to see here. Move along.
Also, note how Trump raised the stakes on the investigation into his campaign’s collusion with Russia: “people will die because of it.” This tells me Trump will try to shut the Mueller probe down, and he’ll attempt to cast himself as a heroic lifesaver when he does.
Open thread.
Putin said it, Trump believes it, and that settles it…Post + Comments (177)