Less than 24 hours later, Donald Trump gave a statement on his performance during the now-infamous Vladimir Putin press conference. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the media at around 1 p.m. on July 17 that Trump would be addressing the fallout from the meeting of the two presidents. The statement is due to be made at 2 p.m. Eastern time. During the press conference, Donald Trump said that he believed the Russian president over the U.S. national security services with regard to allegations of Russian hacking during the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
Watch as @RealDonaldTrump jokes about the intelligence agencies as the lights go out
More on President #Trump‘s meeting with Putin: t.co/DXai9pJ7uS
The initial quote that came out of the statement was Trump saying that he “accepts” the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community. The president also said that he had “full faith” in intelligence services. During his remarks, Trump joked about intelligence services as the lights seemingly went out in the room.
Trump walked back on the comments he made during the press conference where he said that he didn’t “see any reason” Russia would hack the U.S. election. Trump said that what he meant to say was that he didn’t see any reason why it “wouldn’t” be Russia. Trump also said that his visit with Putin “was our most successful visit” on the recent European trip.
On Twitter, Trump wrote that the “fake news is going crazy” over the press conference. The president wrote, “While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!” Trump also touted his success in convincing other NATO countries to pay “billions of dollars” into the organization. Trump went on to thank libertarian Senator Rand Paul for his support. The Kentucky senator was quoted by Trump as saying, “The President has gone through a year and a half of totally partisan investigations – what’s he supposed to think?” Trump’s final message before the statement simply read, “The economy of the United States is stronger than ever before!”
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Even the president’s favorite show, Fox & Friends, found it difficult to defend their number one viewer. Host Brian Kilmeade, who is generally unwavering in his support of Donald Trump, said, “I will say this to the president. When Newt Gingrich, when General Jack Keane, when Matt Schlapp say the president fell short and made our intelligence apparatus look bad, I think it’s time to pay attention.” Kilmeade did say that Trump’s mistake was “easily correctible.”
Former President Obama: “We see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they’re caught in a lie and they just double-down and they lie some more.”
Prior to Trump’s statement, President Obama gave an oration at the celebration for Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday in South Africa where he seemed to covertly take aim at the Helsinki press conference. President Obama said, “We see the utter loss of shame among political leaders where they’re caught in a lie and they just double-down and they lie some more.”
