Thread: Trump sides with Russia against FBI at Helsinki summit

Trump sides with Russia against FBI at Helsinki summit

23 minutes ago

US President Donald Trump has defended Russia over claims of interference in the 2016 presidential election.

After face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump contradicted US intelligence agencies and said there had been no reason for Russia to meddle in the vote.

Mr Putin reiterated that Russia had never interfered in US affairs.

The two men held nearly two hours of closed-door talks in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Monday.

At a news conference after the summit, President Trump was asked if he believed his own intelligence agencies or the Russian president when it came to the allegations of meddling in the elections.

"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," he replied.

US intelligence agencies concluded in 2016 that Russia was behind an effort to tip the scale of the US election against Hillary Clinton, with a state-authorised campaign of cyber attacks and fake news stories planted on social media.

In a strongly-worded statement, US House Speaker Paul Ryan said Mr Trump "must appreciate that Russia is not our ally".

"There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals," he said, adding that there was "no question" Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election.

"The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy."

Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Mr Trump had sent the Kremlin a message of US "weakness".

He tweeted: "Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections."

Fellow Republican Senator Jeff Flake - a staunch critic of President Trump - called his words "shameful".

In a series of tweets, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Trump's actions had "strengthened our adversaries while weakening our defences and those of our allies".

Some US politicians had called for the summit to be cancelled after 12 Russian military intelligence agents were indicted last week by US special counsel Robert Mueller, accused of hacking the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Speaking on Monday, President Putin offered to allow US investigators to visit Russia to question the officers.

He made it clear that, in return, Russia would want similar access to people in the US it suspects of criminal activity.

President Trump said Mr Putin had been "extremely strong and powerful in his denial" of any election meddling.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44852812

Shock as Trump backs Putin on election meddling at summit

Jeff Mason, Denis Pinchuk
July 15, 2018 / 9:10 PM / Updated 9 minutes ago
5 Min Read

HELSINKI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said after meeting Vladimir Putin on Monday he saw no reason to believe his own intelligence agencies rather than trust the Kremlin leader on the question of whether Russia interfered to help him win the 2016 election.

On a day when he faced pressure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump said not a single critical word about Moscow on any of the issues that have brought relations between the two powers to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Instead, he denounced the “stupidity” of his own country’s policy, especially the decision to investigate election interference.

Trump’s performance is likely to create a political storm in the United States, where the White House has struggled for months to dispel a suggestion that Trump was unwilling to stand up to Putin.

His performance was denounced as “treasonous” by a former CIA chief and condemned as “shameful” by a Republican senator, although other Republicans were more cautious.

Trump held his meeting with Putin just days after a special prosecutor in the United States indicted 12 Russian agents for stealing Democratic Party documents to help him win the vote.

Asked if he believed U.S. intelligence agencies, which concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, he said he was not convinced.

“I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia, Trump said. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

FOOLISHNESS AND STUPIDITY

Before the summit even began, Trump blamed his own country for the deterioration in relations.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” he said on Twitter.

The Russian foreign ministry tweeted back: “We agree”.

At the news conference, Trump was invited by reporters to offer any criticism of Russia but he repeatedly declined. Asked if Russia was at all to blame for the poor ties, he said: “I hold both countries responsible. I think the U.S. has been foolish. We’ve all been foolish,” he said, before veering into discussion about his election victory.

“I beat Hillary Clinton easily and frankly we beat her…We won that race and it’s a shame that there can be even a little bit of a cloud over it,” he said.

Trump’s warm words for Russia were a marked contrast from the past week when he repeatedly rebuked traditional U.S. allies at a summit of NATO and during a visit to Britain.

Asked if Putin was an adversary, he said: “Actually I called him a competitor and a good competitor he is and I think the word competitor is a compliment.”

Putin spoke of the importance of the two countries working together and praised Trump, at one point interrupting the news conference to give the U.S. President a soccer ball.

Asked whether he had wanted Trump to win the 2016 election and had instructed officials to help him, Putin said “Yes I did”, although he denied any interference, saying the allegations were “complete nonsense”.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Trump’s performance would send a message of “weakness” to Moscow.

“Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections. This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves,” Graham said on Twitter.

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, said: “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.”

TREASONOUS

Former CIA chief John Brennan went further, suggesting Trump should be removed from office: “Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ 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???”

The summit caps a trip abroad during which Trump accused NATO allies of failing to spend enough on their militaries and embarrassed British Prime Minister Theresa May by saying she refused to take his advice about how to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU. He referred to the European Union itself as a “foe” in trade and repeatedly criticized it.

In some of the strongest words yet reflecting the unease of Washington’s traditional allies, Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday Europe could no longer rely on the United States.

“To maintain our partnership with the USA we must readjust it,” Heiko Maas told the Funke newspaper group. “The first clear consequence can only be that we need to align ourselves even more closely in Europe.”

(This story corrects spelling to Lindsey in 18th paragraph)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1K601D

Republicans, Democrats slam Trump for being soft on Putin

By Bob Fredericks
July 16, 2018 | 2:33pm

Republicans joined Democrats and national security experts in forcefully condemning President Donald Trump for essentially giving Vladimir Putin a pass on Russia’s interference in the US presidential election.

“There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world. That is not just the finding of the American intelligence community but also the House Committee on Intelligence,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said.

Trump stunned a post-summit joint news conference with Putin in which he seemed to buy the Russian strongman’s denials.

“President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it should be,” the commander-in-chief said, contradicting his own intelligence community, which concluded last year that Russia had deliberately meddled on Putin’s orders.

“The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” Ryan continued.

“There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals. The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy.”

Ailing Arizona Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, whom Trump has repeatedly mocked over his vote against killing Obamacare despite his ongoing battle with brain cancer, released a blistering statement.

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was 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,” he said.

“He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script. No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”

Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and frequent critic of the president, also weighed in, criticizing an earlier Trump tweet that blamed poor relations between the US and Russia on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

“I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful,” Flake tweeted.

“A better thing, Mr. President, would be to declare: ‘Russia is the enemy of America and our allies, and we will expose and respond to their continued cyber-attacks against our nation,’” Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse added on Twitter.

“Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections,” said South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham, one of the president’s golfing buddies.

“This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves.”

“There’s no question that Putin interfered in the elections,” Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker told reporters in Washington.

Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered a theory about why Trump wouldn’t criticize the Russian leader, a former KGB officer.

“I get the feeling, I’ve seen it first-hand actually, sometimes the president cares more about how a leader treats him personally than forcefully getting out there and pushing against things that we know have harmed our nation,” Corker said.

“I thought that was what you all experienced today. I did not think this was a good moment for our country.”

Fox News host Abby Huntsman — whose father, Jon, is the US ambassador to Russia — also slammed Trump’s performance.

“No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus,” she wrote on Twitter. Huntsman’s father joined Trump in Helsinki.

And John Brennan, CIA director during then-President Obama’s second term, was even harsher.

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ 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???” he asked on Twitter.

Colorado Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley told BuzzFeed “it’s likely” that Putin has damaging information about the president.

Asked if that were the case during the news conference, Putin hesitated before answering, “For us this issue — and now to the compromising material. Yeah, I did heard these rumors that these allegedly collected compromising material on Mr. Trump when he was visiting Moscow,” he said.

“Distinguished colleague, let me tell you this: When President Trump was in Moscow back then, I didn’t even know that he was in Moscow. I treat President Trump with utmost respect, but back then when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in Moscow.”

https://nypost.com/2018/07/16/republ...soft-on-putin/

The Republicans need to stand firm and strong with this President on forging a new and improved relationship with Russia. We can live another 100 years believing that Russia is our enemy, or we can forge a new alliance that while we may not be the best of friends we can be friendly so we have a mutually beneficial alliance that fosters peace and prosperity between US and Russia which will benefit the world at the same time.

Additionally, our "intel" community doesn't set policy for the United States. They sneak around and spy on people, gather some "info" or "intel" and write it up in big conjecturous reports. For too long, too many Presidenst have been led around the nose by the "intel" community which has almost single-handedly started every war since Korea. They started Vietnam, they started Kuwait, they started Iraq, they started Afghanistan, they started Syria and who knows what they're doing or have done in other countries in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. We don't know because it's "classified".

In the US Justice System, you can't conduct a trial without witnesses, you can't even introduce a document or finding without a witness to testify about it. And, the defendants have the opportunity to examine all that "evidence", question it, and cross-examine all "witnesses".

So they've "indicted", well, sort of. There's a big looming issue of why Friday's "grand jury indictment" wasn't signed by the foreperson of the jury as required by law. They have sort of indicted 25 Russians they can't ever prosecute, won't ever prosecute, and thus will never prove the allegations, so as we stand today, the President is right, there is no basis at this point in time to howl at Putin about something he himself didn't do that we can't and won't ever prove someone else did.

Americans aren't interested in tainted investigations based on unverified "intel" about meddling which isn't even a crime. Is hacking computers a crime? Sure, so produce the servers and prosecute the case. Putin didn't do it, his name isn't in the "indictments". The Russian Constitution prohibits any extradition of Russian citizens to the United States for crimes alleged by the United States so there's nothing Putin can do about this except follow the constitutional law of his country and tell US to get lost.

Trump promised the American people a new and improved relationship with Russia, or at least an effort on our part to forge one. Trump wisely is not going to allow some computer hacking of the DNC or John Podest's emails or any other Democrat or Republican to interfere with this much broader far more important goal.

If that means taking heat from the media and Hate Russia contingency in the United States, then no one should be shocked or surprised that President Trump made the decision to take the heat and will proceed forward with his goal of improving our relationship with Russia.

The accusation is that Russia wants to change our country. Well, we have been trying to change their country for years. We try to indoctrinate their people with Voice Of America. Today technology has expanded out abilities. So that is a lame excuse.

As to believing the US intelligence or Vladimir, Mueller charged 12 Russian spies, but not Hillary. We expect Vladimir to surrender his people to our justice system when we will not charge violators in our own jurisdiction. They worry about what secrets hackers got from Hillary's computer that may be used against our interests in the future. But, because Hillary destroyed the records of the Emails on that computer, we don't know what they have to use against us.

Judy complains that the indictment is not signed by the jury foreperson. That would seem to indicate that the indictment is a farce. They don't actually have evidence. It is just another political ploy by Mueller and his team.

So if, as Judy argues, we consider someone innocent until proven guilty, Vladimir Putin claiming he is innocent of interfering in our election should be believed until we have a verdict that he is guilty!

Exactly!!!

Originally Posted by jtdc

The accusation is that Russia wants to change our country.

Yet, they think the illegals in this country, and the refugees from all the world changing our country is absolutely perfect.

No need to look across the pond for enemies, we have millions right here at home, in plain sight, out in the open.

Exactly!!

Trump says he misspoke on Russian meddling during press conference, accepts US intel

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Trump says he misspoke on Russian meddling during press conference, accepts US intel

Some criticism and it's time to backpedal.