Trump says he holds Putin responsible for meddling as White House grapples with summit fallout – Reuters

As reported by Reuters, US President Donald Trump is now saying that he holds Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally responsible” for election meddling in the US in 2016, walking back statements made at the recent Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, and the White House administration has been struggling to contain the fallout of the meeting.

Key quotes

“Trump, facing a political uproar over his failure to confront Putin over Russia’s 2016 U.S. election meddling, adopted his usual defiant posture two days after their Helsinki summit and called his critics deranged.  Asked by a journalist before a morning Cabinet meeting at the White House whether Russia was still targeting the United States, Trump looked at the reporter, shook his head and said, “No.”  At a later briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the president was saying “no” to answering questions, not to the question itself.

“Just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country. So certainly as the leader of a country you would have to hold him responsible, yes,” Trump told CBS News in an interview.

American intelligence officials have said Russia’s efforts to undermine U.S. elections are continuing and now target the Nov. 6 congressional races. Sanders said Trump believes the threat from Russia to undermine the midterm elections still exists.  “The president has made clear to Vladimir Putin that he should stay out of U.S. elections,” Sanders said. “The president and his administration are working very hard to make sure that Russia is unable to meddle in our elections, as they have done in the past.”  It was the second time since Monday’s summit that Trump and the White House have blamed a misstatement or misunderstanding for the furor over Russia.

On Tuesday, Trump said he misspoke at a Helsinki news conference with Putin and that he accepted intelligence agency conclusions about Russian election meddling, although he hedged by deviating from his prepared notes to say “it could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.”  

Trump stunned the world on Monday by shying away from criticizing the Russian leader for Moscow’s actions to undermine the 2016 presidential election, sparking bipartisan fury at home and prompting calls by some U.S. lawmakers for tougher sanctions and other actions to punish Russia.”