INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Trump had earlier said there was no reason to believe Russia's hand behind election meddling (File)Washington, United States: President
Donald Trump on Tuesday moved to limit the damage from his summit with Vladimir Putin, claiming he misspoke in appearing to accept the
Russian leader's denial of election meddling, in a rebuke to US intelligence chiefs.At their meeting in Helsinki on Monday, Trump failed to
challenge Putin over the 2016 presidential election, seeming to accept at face value the strongman's denial that Moscow interfered in a bid
to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.But faced with outrage at home, with even some of his political allies demanding that he
reverse course, Trump, in an extraordinary postscript to the summit, sought to walk back his remarks.Trump said he accepted the intelligence
community's assessment that Russia had meddled in the election, and offered a rambling explanation of his assertion that he could not see
"any reason" why Russia would interfere."In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'," Trump said,
speaking at the White House ahead of a meeting with Republican lawmakers."The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it
wouldn't be Russia.' Sort of a double negative," he added, repeating the laborious clarification several times.But while the US leader
expressed his "full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies," he insisted that "Russia's actions had no impact at all on
the outcome of the election."And he again floated the idea that "other people" could be involved.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer was quick
to pounce."President Trump tried to squirm away from what he said yesterday
It's 24 hours too late, and in the wrong place," Schumer said.'Undermine democracy'Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into
Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign has increasingly put pressure on the White House.The president, who regards
the probe as an attack on his legitimacy, has dubbed it a "witch hunt," and again said Tuesday there were "no collusion at all."But the
investigation is progressing, as evidenced by the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence agents on Friday, timing that was
embarrassing ahead of the summit with Putin.Trump initially sounded a defensive note on Tuesday, insisting his meeting with Putin had been
"even better" than his one last week with traditional allies NATO , a testy gathering seen as having badly strained trans-Atlantic ties.But
the US president found precious little support for his decision not to confront the Russian leader, on either side of the political
aisle.Former House speaker and longtime Trump ally Newt Gingrich put it bluntly."It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must
be corrected, immediately," he tweeted as Trump headed home.By Tuesday afternoon when he faced the cameras, Trump had changed tack."We're
doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018," the president said.After his remarks, the White House released a
fact sheet on how the US is "standing up to Russia's malign activities", a clear bid to counter the notion that Trump had been soft on
Putin.And on Tuesday evening, Trump was feisty on Twitter again as he defended his meeting with Putin and took aim at one of his favorite
targets."The meeting between President Putin and myself was a great success, except in the Fake News Media!" Trump wrote.Former president
Barack Obama appeared to allude to his successor in a speech in South Africa on Tuesday, blasting "strongman politics", without naming
Trump.While Trump was not entirely without defenders, the bipartisan consensus was broadly hostile to his stance in Helsinki, as the top
Republican in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan made clear at a press conference Tuesday on Capitol Hill."We stand by our NATO allies and
all those countries who are facing Russian aggression," Ryan said
"Vladimir Putin does not share our interests, Vladimir Putin does not share our values.""We just conducted a year-long investigation into
Russia's interference in our elections
They did interfere in our elections
It's really clear," he said."Russia is trying to undermine democracy itself."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
