Talking heads, Democratic politicians and other opponents of President Trump flew into an apoplectic rage Monday morning as President Trump and President Putin answered questions from reporters about their joint summit in Helsinki. The historic meeting contained more than a few controversial revelations, and the media is apparently fixating on Putin’s admission that he wanted Trump to win in 2016 – though both Trump and Putin denied that Russia had meddled in the race to benefit the president.
Putin said he wanted Trump to win “because he talked about bringing US-Russia relations back to normal.”
Here’s the moment when Putin was asked if he wanted Trump to win the 2016 election. Putin answered, “Yes.” pic.twitter.com/GIfVLUwERu
— Marcus Gilmer (@marcusgilmer) July 16, 2018
Asked point-blank if he had collected “compromising material” on President Trump when Trump traveled to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013, Putin said he wasn’t even aware of Trump’s visit at the time, and that there were hundreds of American business luminaries in town at the same time. Collecting information on all of them would have been impossible, Putin said. Trump added that if Russia did have the long-rumored kompromat, “it would have been out long ago.”
Both Trump and Putin insisted that there was no collusion between Russia and the US, and that the Mueller probe is – as Trump has repeatedly described it – a witch hunt that has gone far beyond the original focus of what happened during the campaign.
“There was no collusion,” Trump said at joint presser with Russian Pres. Putin. “I didn’t know the president. There was nobody to collude with.”
“We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president.”
Trump said that Putin convincingly denied interfering in the US election. Asked by a reporter if he would denounce Putin for interfering with the 2016 election, Trump refused and instead asked questions about the DNC’s failure to grant access to its compromised server to the FBI.
“30,000 emails gone – just gone. I don’t think in Russia they’d be gone so easily. Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. He offered to have people working on the case come and work with their people.”
Putin later added that Russia has never, and will never, interfere in US affairs, and that Russia is “willing to analyze” any evidence to the contrary.
“I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs including election process,” Putin said. “Any specific material, if such things arise, we are willing to analyze together.”
Pundits bashed Trump for treating Putin amicably during the press conference, with CNN’s Anderson Cooper describing the conference as “disgraceful.”
“You have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly than I’ve ever seen.”
Meanwhile, Trump tweeted video of the full press conference:
Joint Press Conference from Helsinki, Finland: https://t.co/fadLMDuGiY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
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