"I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election," Trump tweeted Sunday. "He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion ..."
I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion.....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017
Trump equivocated on the hacking issue during his recent trip to Poland and Germany, telling reporters that "it could very well have been Russia" that hacked top Democrats, "but I think it could well have been other countries" as well. "Nobody really knows fore sure," the president said.
Russian officials said Trump accepted Putin's denial of Russian hacking and claims that political enemies are exaggerating the issue — claims that U.S. officials did not dispute a day after the high-profile meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany,
However, during an interview on Fox News Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Trump does not believe Putin's denials, and repeatedly pressed the Russian president on election meddling before moving on to other issues. (Priebus added that Trump believes others have meddled in elections as well, citing China and North Korea as examples.)
"Yes, he (Trump) believes that Russia probably committed all of these acts that we've been told of," Priebus told Fox News.
As a special counsel and congressional committees investigate Russian election meddling — and any links there may have been to the Trump campaign — the president also used Twitter to again attack Democrats and the news media over the many questions surrounding his 2016 race against Hillary Clinton.
The president repeated his idea that the United States and Russia cooperate on a "cyber security unity" to prevent future attacks — an idea that drew scorn even from Trump's Republican colleagues who said Putin simply cannot to be trusted.
"Partnering with Putin on a 'Cyber Security Unit' is akin to partnering with Assad on a 'Chemical Weapons Unit.'" tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
A rival of Trump's during last year's Republican primaries, Rubio also said: "We have no quarrel with Russia or the Russian people. Problem is with Putin & his oppression, war crimes & interference in our elections."
We have no quarrel with Russia or the Russian people. Problem is with Putin & his oppression, war crimes & interference in our elections 1/3— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 9, 2017
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who also opposed Trump in the 2016 GOP primaries, told NBC's Meet The Press that a U.S-Russian cyber security unit is "not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty close."
Saying he is "dumbfounded" by Trump's overall response to the Russian hacking scandal, including the president's implicit criticism of the U.S. intelligence community, Graham said, "I think it's going to dog his presidency until he breaks this cycle."
Democratic opponents of Trump questioned whether the president is willing to do anything about Russian efforts to hack last year's election.
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Trump supports Russia by consistently undercutting the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Putin's government authorized the election hacking. "I don't think we can expect the Russians to be any kind of a credible partner in some cyber security unit," Schiff told CNN's State of the Union.
Calling the idea "dangerously naive," Schiff said: "If that's our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow."
Trump also made a point of tweeting that he and Putin did not talk about lifting a series of U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Russia after last year's election and after military activities in Ukraine, including the 2014 "annexation" of the Crimea region.
"Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian & Syrian problems are solved!" Trump tweeted regarding Russian sanctions.
U.S. and American officials also gave different stories about the hacking flap after the Trump-Putin meeting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. president accepted Putin's denial about the hacking. U.S. officials did not dispute Lavrov's statement, more or less confirming it.
Asked about Lavrov, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters: "You know, we're not going to make comments about what other people say. President Trump will be happy to make statements himself about that."
Appearing Sunday on ABC's This Week, Mnuchin said there's no reason for Trump to "broadcast" everything he said to Putin, and that the president has "made it very clear how he feels. He's made it very clear that he addressed it straight on."
During his Sunday tweet storm, Trump said that he and Putin "discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things" would be "guarded and safe."
In other posts, Trump criticized the Democrats for poor cyber security of their own, President Barack Obama for not moving against the Russians during the election season, and the news media for its coverage of the various investigations.
The president also expressed a desire to work with Putin and Russia on global issues: "We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!"
...We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017
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