As controversy mounted over his assertion that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin's word over the findings of the U.S. intelligence community, President Donald Trump attempted to walk back his remarks, in part, by claiming that "other people" could have also meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
Offered without supporting evidence, Trump's new claim closely paralleled the moment he backtracked on his belief that "both sides" should be blamed after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, took a deadly turn. It also seemingly contradicted Trump's renewed assertion that he had "full faith" in American intelligence agencies, suggesting the president is not fully sold on their findings.
Back in Washington from an overseas trip to Europe, the president sought to clarify his claim Tuesday that Putin should taken at his word when he assured Trump that Russia had not interfered in America's electoral process.
"I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said after his historic summit with Putin in Helsinki, Finland on Monday. “I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
In a rare refute of the president, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on camera before Trump's scheduled press availability to assure Americans that there is "indisputable evidence" of Russia's meddling.
"To our European friends, we value the NATO treaty – the most significant military alliance in world history," McConnell said Tuesday on Capitol Hill. "We believe the European Union countries are our friends; the Russians are not."
In a reversal, Trump claimed to the world that he had simply misspoken by one word during his press conference in Finland. The president explained that he had intended to say he did not see any reason why it "wouldn't" be Russia – a double negative.
"I thought that I made myself very clear, but having just reviewed the transcript, I realized that there is a need for some clarification," Trump said as he walked back his controversial comments at the White House. "The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't, or why it wouldn't be Russia.'"
In tandem, Trump asserted to Americans on Tuesday that he had "full faith" in U.S. intelligence agencies and also supported their conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.
However, using rhetoric that mirrored his previous comments in the aftermath of Charlottesville, the president offered the unsubstantiated and contradictory claim that other forces might share blame.
"Could be other people also," Trump said on Tuesday.
In his analysis for CNN, journalist Chris Cillizza dove into the meaning of those five key words:
Those five words not only totally undermine what Trump was trying to do with his post-Helsinki summit comments but also run afoul of the intelligence community's 2017 report on Russian interference in the election. That report, which carried the unanimous endorsement of the entire US intelligence community, said that Russia interfered in the election with the express goal of helping Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton. Nowhere else in the IC report is there a mention of another country being even possibly responsible for the broad and deep election-meddling effort focused on the 2016 campaign.
Trump's Tuesday comments followed harsh criticism, even from his most ardent supporters, for appearing to deny his own intelligence community's conclusion that Russia tampered with the centerpiece of American democracy: its free elections.
"I have great confidence in my intelligence people," Trump said at the press conference on Monday. "But, I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."
In the opening minutes of "Deadline: White House" on Tuesday, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace slammed Trump's claim that he misspoke as a "feeble" attempt at cleaning up a mess.
Wallace, who served as the White House director of communications in the George W. Bush administration, pulled from her own experience to explain why she considered Trump's claim that he had misspoken to be "a shameless lie."
"You know how you know that’s a lie?" Wallace asked. "You know how long it takes for a president to get a transcript or a clip of your press conference? About 60 seconds."
Wallace also found parallels between the president's current effort to climb out of hot water with two of his other most controversial moments as a politician.
"Donald Trump is locked in a crisis that rivals his Charlottesville equivocation about good people on both sides of the white supremacist rally and the release of the Access Hollywood tape," Wallace said. "It’s another debacle of his very own creation. And, as with Charlottesville and Access Hollywood, it has shaken even his most ardent supporters – mainly the select Fox News anchors who carry his water morning after morning and night after night and the Republicans in Congress who excuse all manner of misconduct."
On Twitter, CNN anchor Jake Tapper reminded Americans that the views Trump had expressed in Helsinki – "an affinity for Putin and skepticism about the U.S. intelligence community’s assertions about Russia" – reflect a consistent worldview that has remained unchanged over time.
"Moreover, POTUS did two [Fox News Channel] interviews after his Helsinki press conference and at no point in the clips that I’ve seen from [Sean] Hannity or Tucker [Carlson] did the president back off what he said at that press conference in terms of believing Putin, skepticism of US [intelligence community], and moral equivalence," Tapper tweeted on Tuesday.
In addition to McConnell, several top Republican thought leaders publicly chastised the president for cozying up to Putin in Helsinki.
Former CIA director John Brennan called the president's performance "nothing short of treasonous."
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has consistently criticized the president's stance toward Russia, said Trump's actions represented "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."
"President Trump proved not only unable but unwilling to stand up to Putin," McCain said. "He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script, as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world."
Even former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a fervent Trump supporter, called the president's remarks "the most serious mistake of his presidency."
"President Trump must clarify his statements in Helsinki on our intelligence system and Putin," Gingrich tweeted. "It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected—immediately."
Conservative pundits on Fox News chimed in with their own critiques, with some telling the president that he "fell short" of what was required of him in Helsinki.
Shares