President Donald Trump evaded and went on unrelated tangents Monday when asked if he believed American intelligence agencies’ assessments that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
“Who do you believe?” the Associated Press’ Jonathan Lemire asked, after referring to Putin and the intelligence community’s clashing assertions.
Trump responded in part by saying “I don’t see any reason why it would be [Russia],” adding that he had “confidence in both parties” — that is, the intelligence community and Putin.
“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said later.
In between, he dipped and dodged by citing a number of unrelated stories, including the emails Hillary Clinton erased from her personal email server, and a debunked connection to a House Democratic staffer, who Trump referred to as “the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC,” and who federal prosecutors determined had no connection to the stolen Democratic emails.
Watch below:
Asked about whether he believes Putin or the U.S. intelligence agencies who accuse Russia of election meddling, Trump says "I don't see any reason why it would be [Russia]" and "I have confidence in both parties." pic.twitter.com/Z4soTtPB9N
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) July 16, 2018
Correction: This post initially misidentified the Associated Press journalist who asked Trump a question. He is Jonathan Lemire, not Lanier. TPM regrets the error.
Trump went on to say “He is a great competitor and I am in awe of his ability to lie with such conviction, but nobody is better than Donald J. Trump.”
We all laugh and mock his mannerisms, but
Extremely strong! Powerful!
The really fascinating and challenging thing to understand in this saga is which parts of Trumpism are his being an agent of a foreign power and which parts are his abundantly clear mental illness.
Crutch words. Things you say when you lose your own mental train. He’s sick. I’m not a doctor, but he’s fucking sick.
“He is such a manly man, and the fact that he is a little bit short, does not detract from that”
This is the very definition of treason. He literally betrayed the US justice system in favor of a foreign adversary accused of committing crimes against the United States.
“I have confidence in both parties.” ie. the IC is right and Putin owns me.