Yesterday, the day after Trump’s unconvincing walkback of believing Putin over the US intelligence community, this happened at a press pool spray:
The exact exchange that just occurred in the White House 👇
REPORTER: Is Russia still targeting the US, Mr. President?
TRUMP: Thank you very much. No. (Shakes head)
REPORTER: No? You don’t believe that to be the case?
TRUMP: No.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 18, 2018
Video:
Is Russia still targeting the US? Trump says, “No.” pic.twitter.com/L5ZY9DE4r1
— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) July 18, 2018
Aaaand for the third day in a row, the Trump White House had to address Trump’s apparent inability to recognize the threat from Russia. What was the response? Sarah Sanders said that Trump was saying “no” to more questions.
Clearly not true.
Aaaand yet ANOTHER walkback. This time relating to a proposal by Putin made to Trump that he would get to interrogate certain Americans of interest to Russia. Yesterday, Sarah Sanders acknowledged that Putin talked to Trump about his interest in prosecuting financier Bill Browder and former US ambassador Michael McFaul, but to the astonishment of everyone, she declined to rule out US cooperation in that effort, saying Trump would consult his national security team. Trump had called it an “incredible offer”.
Today, finally….
In statement, WH press sec. Sarah Sanders said, “It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it. Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt.”
— Steve Brusk (@stevebruskCNN) July 19, 2018
These people can’t do the easiest things right.
One of the issues plaguing the White House is that nobody in the country seems to know what Trump and Putin agreed to in their one-on-one two hour meeting. We seem to be getting drips and drops from the Russian press. There is serious talk about Congress subpeonaing the US translator, the only other American at that meeting. But Republicans, of course, have shot that down.
Vladimir Putin told Russian diplomats that he made a proposal to Donald Trump at their summit this week to hold a referendum to help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but agreed not to disclose the plan publicly so the U.S. president could consider it, according to two people who attended Putin’s closed-door speech on Thursday.
Okay. Would have been nice to know. Is it true? Who knows???
Here’s something we didn’t know before
BREAKING: In Helsinki, President Trump agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the 2 security council staffs. Trump asked Amb. Bolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those ‘discussions are already underway’ – White House
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 19, 2018
WHAT?!?
If early enough, that should make for some gooooood election fodder.
A CBS News poll shows that only one third of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the Helsinki Summit well…
… although 68% of Republicans approved. That’s troubling, but not as troubling as the 51% of Republicans who don’t believe the US intelligence agencies.
The Fox propaganda is working.