In first substantive comment on talks with Putin, Trump says he 'pressed' Russian leader on meddling

In first substantive comment on talks with Putin, Trump says he 'pressed' Russian leader on meddling

President Trump says he “strongly pressed” Russian President Vladimir Putin over interference in last year’s U.S. election, but he did not contest Russian assertions that in their face-to-face meeting, he accepted Putin’s denials of cyber-meddling.

In a series of tweets Sunday morning, Trump did not address the meddling itself, except to say “I’ve already given my opinion” about it.

Some lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, meanwhile, said Trump had let Putin off the hook too easily and ridiculed his embrace of Russia as a partner in cyber-security.

Among the sharpest commentary came from a fellow Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. 

"It's not the dumbest idea I've ever heard, but it's pretty close," Graham said when asked about Trump's plan in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Trump, he added, had a "blind spot" when it came to Russia. Graham also called the meeting with Putin "disastrous."

Trump and Putin spoke for more than two hours Friday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit in Hamburg, Germany, but questions persisted over exactly what was said on the subject of Russia's efforts to sway the 2016 election.

Putin said Saturday that Trump had seemed “satisfied” with his denial â€" a stance that directly contradicts U.S. intelligence conclusions that the Russian campaign of interference was carried out with Putin’s knowledge. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said Trump had accepted Putin’s protestatio ns of innocence.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in the meeting room, offered a somewhat different interpretation, saying Trump had repeatedly raised the subject of election meddling and the two sides had agreed to “move on” to other matters.

The day before the meeting, Trump had equivocated about the nature and scope of Russian interference, saying that the Kremlin, and perhaps others as well, may have sought to influence the vote.

“No one really knows,” he told a news conference during a stopover in Warsaw, the Polish capital.

Reviving a theme of recent days and weeks, Trump again accused former President Obama of failing to act on reports of Russian interference, and blamed the Democratic National Committee, whose emails were hacked by Moscow, for not cooperating more fully with investigators.

 

During the summit, Trump rather improbably declared in a tweet t hat “everyone” among the gathered leaders was talking about Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman, John Podesta.

Following on the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion months ago that Putin had direct knowledge of the Russian campaign seeking to sway the election in Trump’s favor, there are now multiple investigations underway into whether people associated with Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow.

Graham was not the only lawmaker skeptical of Trump's hailing of Russia as a partner in ensuring cyber-security. Several compared the idea to a fox guarding the hen house.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said it would be "dangerously naive" to take Russian offers of cyber-security help at face value.

"We might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Russia," Schiff said on CNN's "State of the Union."

While still in Hamburg, Trump said the meeting with Putin had been “tremendous,” but gave no details and did not hold a follow-up news conference.

Tillerson said the two had negotiated a cease-fire in southern Syria, which Trump touted in his Sunday Twitter statements.

Previous truces in Syria, including some guaranteed by Moscow, have quickly collapsed.

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