TRUMP STRIKES BACK AT CRITICS

 

Trump strikes back after criticism of Helsinki summit with Putin

By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times - Updated: 3:33 p.m. on Tuesday, July 17, 2018

President Trump pushed back against the uproar over his deferential treatment of Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit in Helsinki, Finland, which drew fire from his own Republican lawmakers for disregarding U.S. intelligence agencies finding that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election.

“I have full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies and always had,” said Mr. Trump.

He continued, “Let me be very clear in saying I accept our intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential race took place. There was no collusion at all.”

The president stressed that he has said those things before and that it also has been determined that Russian interference did not change the outcome of the 2016 election.

He said he some of his comments in Helsinki needed “clarification.”

Mr. Trump said he misspoke at a joint press conference Monday with Mr. Putin when he said he “didn’t know why it would be” Russia that hacked the election.

He said that he meant to say: “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.”

The president also vowed to stop Russia or any other country from cyber attacks on this year’s midterm elections.

“My administration will repeal any attempt to interfere in our elections,” he said.

Mr. Trump spoke to reporters as he met with a group of GOP lawmakers at the White House.

The president was implored to repair the impression that he vouched for Mr. Putin’s denial that Russia meddled in the election.

“I think it was a bad day for the president [at the summit],” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump supporter, told reporters Tuesday. “I think he needs to fix it.”

Democrats have seized on Mr. Trump’s performance in Helsinki to slam his foreign policy agenda and implicate him in conspiracy theories involving Russia.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the president’s clarification was an attempt to “squirm away from what he said yesterday.

“It’s twenty-four hours too late, and in the wrong place. If the president can’t say directly to President Putin that he is wrong and we are right and our intelligence agencies are right, it’s ineffective, and worse, another sign of weakness,” said the New York Democrat.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/17/trump-strikes-back-at-critics-of-helsinki-summit-w/?

My comments: Let us remember is was Obama that DECIMATED the U.S. Military--Making U.S. Security WEAK. Further U.S. Weakness comes from a Democrat Party that Hates America as Founded, and her Constitution. That produces WEAKNESS--Weakness from within, which is the Worse kind.