President Donald Trump accepted the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s email servers before the 2016 election.
“I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all,” Trump said before a meeting with Republican members of Congress at the White House.
Trump has spent the past 24 hours beating back media criticisms of his performance at the Helsinki summit Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump refused to acknowledge Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, even after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for hacking the election. (RELATED: ‘Fox & Friends’ Host Implores Trump To Reverse Course After Putin Conference)
The president painted the summit as a success in a Tuesday morning tweet to his followers.
“While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump wrote, adding: “Sadly, it is not being reported that way — the Fake News is going Crazy!”
He received widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats shortly after the summit concluded. “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade implored Trump to reverse course after appearing to accept Putin’s claim that he did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
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