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Trump publicly sides with Putin on election interference

The president said he doesn’t ‘see any reason’ why Russia would have wanted to hack Democratic Party servers.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM

President Donald Trump on Monday publicly sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies, refusing to condemn the Kremlin for interference in the 2016 election and saying that “I don’t see any reason” why Russia would have hacked Democratic computer servers.

Trump’s remarkable statements, during a joint news conference in Helsinki, Finland, after holding a two-hour one-on-one meeting with Putin, came after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians on Friday over allegations of involvement in the state-ordered election-interference operation.

Trump repeatedly attacked the FBI, praised Putin as a “good competitor,” refused to say Russia was accountable for any aspects of fraying U.S.-Russia relations, and attacked Mueller’s inquiry as “a disaster for our country.”

Putin, for his part, denied that Russia interfered in the U.S election, though he declared that he did want Trump to win the 2016 presidential election.

“Yes, I did,” Putin said. “Yes I did.”

While Trump seemed ready to take Putin's word over that of his own intelligence chiefs on the question of Russian election meddling, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was quick to counter the U.S. president, issuing a statement that the U.S. intelligence community has "been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security."

The president's remarks towards Putin and Russia, as well as the overall congenial tone, drew a swift rebuke not just from Democrats but also from Republicans, including some in GOP leadership who have otherwise been allies and defenders of Trump. In a statement issued Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that "the president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally" and that "there is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who had expressed reservations about the Helsinki summit and has clashed regularly and loudly with Trump, told reporters Monday that "I did not think this was a good moment for our country" and that "the president's comments made us look as a nation more like a pushover." Of Putin, Corker said "I would guess he's having caviar right now."

Throughout the 45-minute news conference, Trump made his admiration of Putin clear.

“Our relationship has never been worse than it is now; however, that changed as of about four hours ago, I really believe that,” Trump declared. “Today’s meeting is only the beginning of a longer process. But we have taken the first steps toward a brighter future.”

Trump was directly asked at one point whether he believed the U.S. intelligence agencies, which concluded Russia carried out the hacking of Democratic servers to help Trump, or Putin, who has said it did not. Trump acknowledged that his own intelligence chiefs “think it’s Russia.”

“I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump went on. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server. But I have confidence in both parties.”

The news conference left observers gobsmacked, as Trump — who delights in flaying opponents and perceived opponents, and has made a habit of attacking American allies — refused to say a single negative word about Russia and used the international stage to praise the country’s strongman leader and attack American institutions.

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors,’” former CIA director John Brennan wrote on Twitter. “It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake called the appearance “shameful.” Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel, who served as secretary of defense under former President Barack Obama, told CNN that "President Trump failed America today. He failed America, our interests, in every way."

Perhaps the harshest criticism came from Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who has been among the GOP's most open critics of the president. McCain, a POW during the Vietnam War whom Trump once suggested was not a war hero because he had been captured, called the president's meeting in Helsinki "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."

"The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake," McCain, who has been away from the Senate for months as he undergoes cancer treatment, said in a statement. "No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."

In a flurry of posts to Twitter, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer questioned "what could possibly cause @realDonaldTrump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States" and suggested that the president's performance on Monday would fuel speculation that the Kremlin is in possession of compromising information regarding Trump.

"Millions of Americans will continue to wonder if the only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump," Schumer wrote online, seemingly alluding to a salacious but unverified dossier of intelligence compiled by a former British intelligence agent, who alleged that the Kremlin possesses video footage of the president engaging in lewd acts with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.

After he departed Helsinki, Trump appeared to try to shore up the intelligence community, after publicly refusing to back their assessment. "As I said today and many times before, 'I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.'" Trump tweeted. "However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along!"

Later Monday evening, Trump returned to his charges about the Mueller probe. The president said he was intrigued by Putin's offer to welcome Mueller's prosecutors into Russia to investigate the allegations laid out against 12 members of Russian intelligence, but said the special counsel's team would never go for it.

"13 angry Democrats, you think they are going to want to go?," Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview aired Monday night. "I don't think so."

To Hannity, Trump repeated his claims that the probe has hurt his ability to conduct foreign policy, especially with Russia. He added some of the individuals who have become ensnared in the investigation, including his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign manager Paul Manafort, have been treated very unfairly.

"With Paul Manafort, who clearly is a nice man," Trump said, "you look at what is going on with him. It's like Al Capone."

Coming just days after Trump castigated NATO allies in Belgium and called the European Union a “foe,” the summit with Putin offered the clearest display yet of Trump’s eagerness to forge a bond with a country that is clashing with the U.S. and its allies on issues that span the globe.

Asked at one point if he held Russia accountable for any aspects of the charged relations between the two countries, Trump demurred.

“I hold both countries responsible,” he said. “I think that the United States has been foolish, I think that we’ve all been foolish.”

He quickly turned his ire on the special counsel probe and declared that he ran a “clean campaign” in defeating Hillary Clinton and that there was “zero collusion” between his campaign and Russia.

When Putin was then asked by a reporter why Americans should trust his denials, Trump jumped in to again say that “there was no collusion.”

“You can trust no one,” Putin said, before falsely declaring that “there’s no evidence” that Russia was involved in the interference.

Hours after Trump's news conference had concluded, and in the thick of the uproar it created in the the U.S. and beyond, the Justice Department announced it had charged Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian citizen living in Washington, with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Kremlin without registering as such.

In a statement, the Justice Department said Butina was arrested Sunday and appeared in court Monday. Charges against her were announced by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — not Mueller's office — in conjunction with the assistant attorney general for national security and the FBI's assistant director in charge of the bureau's Washington field office.

Trump and Putin met at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, at first appearing tense and subdued and initially forgoing a handshake as they appeared together before sitting down for the highly anticipated one-on-one meeting.

“I think we have great opportunities together as two countries that, frankly, we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years,” Trump said as he sat beside Putin before an array of Russian and American flags prior to their one-on-one meeting. “But I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship. I hope so.”

The president then repeated what has become something of a mantra as he pursues warmer relations with Moscow: “Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Putin, in his own remarks, said that he looked forward to a discussion “about our bilateral relationship and problem points in the world.”

Trump made no mention in his opening remarks of Russia’s election interference, nor of other areas where the country has been seen as an aggressor, such as Ukraine, Syria and Britain.

The summit came at an extraordinary moment, just days after Mueller indicted 12 Russians for their roles in hacking Democratic Party computer systems as part of the interference campaign.

Those indictments were just the latest in Mueller’s inquiry, which Trump continues to dismiss as a “witch hunt.” Mueller has so far brought indictments against 32 people, including Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is in jail after having his bail revoked over allegations that he sought to tamper with witnesses, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

The investigation has not yet determined whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in the interference effort, something that Trump has repeatedly denied. Moscow is also on the defensive over allegations that it was involved in nerve-agent poisonings in England targeting a former KGB agent that have left at least one British civilian dead.

There also remain the issues of the Syrian civil war, where Putin has backed the President Bashar Al Assad as his government has carried out atrocities against civilians, and Ukraine, where Russia-backed rebels continue to resist the government in Kiev.

Trump in the past has been wary of challenging Putin on Russian aggression abroad, including the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and has repeatedly stressed his desire for a warm relationship with Moscow.

Before Trump had breakfast with Finland President Sauli Niinistö, on Monday, reporters asked him what he would say to Putin. “We’ll do just fine,” Trump responded.

Hours before the day’s events, the president took to Twitter to blame the United States and the investigation of Russian interference — not the interference itself — for chilly relations between Washington and Moscow. It was an extraordinary attack from an American president on both his predecessor and American institutions upholding domestic law and order.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump tweeted, deploying his favorite derogatory nickname for Mueller’s sprawling investigation.

That move — to blame the United States for poor relations, and to attack the investigation of election interference but not the interference itself — was welcomed by Russia.

Moments before Putin and Trump sat down to meet, the Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted out Trump’s pronouncement with a simple addition: “We agree.”

The declaration of American “foolishness and stupidity” was not Trump’s only pre-meeting message.

“President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!” the president wrote earlier in the morning, referring to Agent Peter Strzok, who has come under criticism for personal texts he sent that were critical of Trump.

The broadsides were nothing new for the president, who has long railed against the investigation and questioned the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to aid his chances of winning.

The president has repeated Putin’s claim that Moscow had nothing to do with the hacking, after past meetings with the Russian leader. The Helsinki summit will be their first formal one-on-one gathering and comes after Trump caused controversy last week at a NATO summit and in meetings in Britain.

The president rehashed the NATO summit on Twitter on Monday, declaring it a success even after he spent much of the gathering berating allies for not spending enough on defense.

“Received many calls from leaders of NATO countries thanking me for helping to bring them together and to get them focused on financial obligations, both present & future,” Trump tweeted. “We had a truly great Summit that was inaccurately covered by much of the media. NATO is now strong & rich!"