Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said he “has full faith” in and accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that meddling took place during the 2016 elections as he prepared to meet with members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday.
“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that meddling took place,” Trump said adding that it “could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.”
Trump said he misspoke during Monday’s joint presser with Vladimir Putin and meant to say there was no reason “it wouldn’t be Russia” behind election meddling.
“I said the word would instead of wouldn’t…I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”
At one point, the lights in the White House room went out as Trump made his remarks.
“Oops, they just turned off the light,” Trump said, joking: “That must be the intelligence agencies.”
Trump also defended his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting it was a success in spite of the widespread political backlash at home over his remarks at a Helsinki news conference.
“I think this was our most successful visit and that had to do, as you know, with Russia. I met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in an attempt to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing humanity,” Trump said. “We have never been in a worse relationship with Russia than we are as of a few days ago, and I think that’s gotten substantially better and I think it has the possibility of getting much better.”
The president drew criticism, even from some of his closest Republican allies, for his earlier comments during the summit’s press conference in which he seemed to accept Putin’s denials of election meddling in conflict with his own intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia did, in fact, interfere in the election.
Among the strongest rebukes of the president’s performance came from close ally Newt Gingrich, who called for Trump to immediately correct what he characterized as the “the most serious mistake of his presidency.”
The president took to Twitter Tuesday morning to double down on his assessment that the meeting with Putin was successful, even more so than his meeting with the United States’ closest allies at NATO.
The president also offered thanks to Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who was one of a small number of Republicans who offered a defense of the president.
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