Trump Says Putin Told Him Again There Was No Election Meddling, Putin Says Trump Never Even Raised The Topic
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seemed to provide differing accounts of what they talked about during their informal chats at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam. While Trump insisted that he brought up the question of election meddling again during their conversation, Kremlin said the opposite.
“He said he didn’t meddle. He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that he completely believes the Russian president, according to CNN.
“Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that. And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it. I think he is very insulted by it.”
Trump went on to say that he does not intend to cause arguments with the Russian president because there were more important matters like Syria and Ukraine to discuss. He reiterated that the confidence that Putin exudes while denying any meddling has convinced him that the Kremlin did not intentionally interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections, despite reports by multiple U.S. intelligence agencies confirming that Russia hacked into DNC servers and posted fake ads on American social media companies helping them reach a staggering 126 million Americans through Facebook alone.
“I can’t stand there and argue with him, I would rather have him get out of Syria. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he has nothing to do with that. Now, you are not going to get into an argument, you are going to start talking about Syria and the Ukraine.”
President Trump says Russian President Vladimir Putin once again vehemently denied interference in the 2016 elections, and he believes him https://t.co/6QYAE01alh pic.twitter.com/iR5CwNA0mY
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 11, 2017
But The Hill reported that Putin’s office insisted that “President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not discuss alleged election meddling on Saturday.”
Putin’s press secretary Dmitri Pesko, when asked by a journalist if the Russian president discussed U.S. election meddling during his meeting with Trump, seemed to flat-out deny the American President’s version of the conversations.
“No, as far as you know, did the two leaders discuss meddling?” he shot back.
Trump is supposed to meet with Putin tomorrow. Probably for his first annual performance review.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) November 9, 2017
At the moment, it seems difficult to figure out which side is lying, especially given the propensity of both presidents to do so, but at least we know one side is not speaking the truth.
[Featured Image by Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP]
