Trump says Russia no longer targeting US, contradicting intelligence chief
President’s response comes a week after the top US intelligence officer cautioned that Russia is still a persistent threat
Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he does not believe Russia is still targeting the United States, directly contradicting the nation’s top intelligence officer, who said Moscow continues to attack America’s electoral system.
When asked by reporters at the start of a cabinet meeting whether he believed Russia was “still targeting the US”, Trump responded: “No.”
The White House swiftly sought to clean up Trump’s comments by claiming the president was saying “no” to taking questions from reporters.
“Certainly, we believe the threat still exists,” Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters hours later.
The explanation was met with skepticism in the White House briefing room, as reporters pressed Sanders on what was widely interpreted as the president suggesting the Russians were no longer targeting the US. Sanders nonetheless doubled down and sought to cut off further questions on the subject.
In an interview with CBS later on Wednesday, Trump said he holds Putin responsible for Russian meddling and told the leader not to interfere again.
Trump said he was “very strong on the fact that we can’t have meddling – we can’t have any of that.”
“I let him know we can’t have this, we’re not going to have it, and that’s the way it’s going to be,” Trump added.
The latest series of seemingly contradictory remarks from the president came less than 24 hours after Trump sought to reverse course in the wake of unrelenting, bipartisan criticism in response to his conduct during a joint press conference with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki, in which he praised the Russian leader and sided with him over the views of US intelligence officials that Russia had attacked the 2016 US election.
In a Tuesday news conference, Trump attempted to defuse the brewing political crisis after the US president said that Putin privately offered an “extremely strong and powerful” denial of Russian involvement in the US election and raised concerns about the veracity of intelligence agencies’ conclusion.
Trump said that he had misspoken during the press conference, and believed the conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. But moments later he again undercut his own acceptance of Russian involvement by again casting doubt on who was responsible, saying that the interference “could be other people also”.
Trump has long sown doubt about the conclusion that Russia meddled in the presidential election and has repeatedly attacked the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller as a “witch-hunt”.
Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, cautioned that Russia remains a persistent threat to US elections.
“The warning lights are blinking red again,” Coats said last week. “Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.”
