“I realise that there is the need for some clarification.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has performed a U-turn on his claim that he “didn’t see any reason” why Russia would be guilty of meddling in the election that saw him rise to the Oval Office.
Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a historic summit in Helsinki on Monday, a meeting preceded by typically incendiary comments in which the American President claimed that relations between the two nations have “never been worse.”
Despite all of that, it seemed to go alright, even if Trump did cause further anger with his comments concerning Russia’s role in suspicous electioneering.
On Tuesday evening, however, Trump sensationally backtracked on his previous comments, insisting that what he meant to say was that he didn’t see any reason why Russia wouldn’t be responsible for any vote-tampering tactics.
“I thought that I made myself very clear by having just reviewed the transcript,” Trump began.
“I came back and I said, ‘What is going on? What’s the big deal?’ and so I actually went out and I got a transcript, I reviewed it. I actually went out and reviewed a clip of an answer that I gave and I realise that there is a need for some clarification.
“It should have been obvious, I thought it would be obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t. In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’.
“The sentence should have been; ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t or why it wouldn’t be Russia’.”
"I should have said 'wouldn't'" – President @realDonaldTrump appears to backtrack on his claim that he "didn't see any reason" why Russia would be involved in US election meddling#TrumpPutinSummit
Full story available here: https://t.co/mJRrQJXGps pic.twitter.com/egmwO37ojl
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 17, 2018
Trump went on to suggest that perhaps it “would have been a little bit unclear on the transcript or on the actual video.”
Earlier in the same address, Trump stated that he has “full faith and support” for America’s intelligence agencies, and that he “accepts” that Russian “meddling” did in fact take place.
“I have felt very strongly that while Russia’s actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying that I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.
“There could be other people, also, there’s a lot of people out there,” he added.
Trump also stressed that there was “no collusion” and that “a lot of people have come out strongly on that.”
Last week at the beginning of a tense NATO summit, Trump instantly went on the offensive; claiming that “Germany is completely controlled by Russia” in response to questions over his then-forthcoming meeting with Putin.
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