Nikki Haley Contradicts Trump On Russia
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley contradicted President Donald Trump on the question of whether or not Russia meddled in the 2016 election Saturday. Haley's answer comes after Trump refused to say definitively whether or not Russia interfered in the election.
"Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections," Haley told CNN's Dana Bash in a pre-taped interview for "State of the Union," which airs Sunday morning. "They're doing this across multiple continents, and they're doing this in a way that they're trying to cause chaos within the countries."
"Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections," @nikkihaley tells @DanaBashCNN #CNNSOTU https://t.co/bwQw7Zx3uH
— CNN (@CNN) July 8, 2017
During a joint press conference Thursday in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump was hesitant to confirm whether or not he thinks that the Russian meddled in the election. "Nobody really knows," he said. "Nobody really knows for sure."
Trump has also repeatedly asserted that the Russian involvement during the election — and the subsequent allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian hackers — as a "phony story" and a "witch hunt."
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the president discussed the allegations at length Friday with Russia's Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.
"The president opened the meeting by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in 2016 election. Putin denied such involvement, as he has done in the past," Tillerson said during an off-camera briefing Friday.
Haley insisted on CBS News' "Face The Nation" that both Trump and Putin knew that Russians interfered in the election, but that Putin would not admit it.
"President Trump still knows that they meddled," she told CBS News' John Dickerson in a pre-taped interview. "President Putin knows that they meddled, but he is never going to admit to it. And that’s all that happened."
READ: Will Russia US Relations Improve? Nikki Haley Says Trump White House Will 'Call Out Russia If We See Something Wrong'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Trump accepted that Russia had not meddled in the election after the Friday meeting, which lasted for over two hours.
"U.S. President Trump said that he heard firm assertions from Russian President Putin that it is not true and that Russian authorities have not meddled in the elections," Lavrov said at the G20 summit, according to a Saturday report by Reuters.
"[Trump] said that he accepts these assertions. That's it," Lavrov continued.
Putin said in a press conference Saturday that he believed that the two world leaders were in agreement that Russia did not interfere in the election.
"I repeat, he asked a lot of questions on this matter," Putin said. "I answered as many as I could answer. I think he took it into consideration and agreed with it. But you should ask him what his opinion is on that."
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley testifies during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee June 28, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Photo: (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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