President Donald Trump confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, he said at a joint press conference Monday.
“As president, I will always put what is best for America and what is best for the American people. During today’s meeting I addressed the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. Spent a great deal of time talking about it and president Putin may very well want to address it and very strongly,” Trump said in highly anticipated remarks.
Trump’s remarks follow an indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers by special counsel Robert Mueller for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. This meddling consisted of hacking Democratic party apparatus’s and operatives then selectively releasing emails in a media campaign.
Trump’s confrontation of Putin was widely anticipated with significant scrutiny given to the subject by the news media. Putin confirmed in his opening remarks that Trump confronted him over the issue and said that Russia denies the action categorically.