Donald Trump now denies ever saying Russia didn’t meddle in the election

DONALD Trump has back-pedalled on a claim that’s been following him since the US election. But dozens of previous interviews and tweets tell a different story.

Donald Trump may have some more explaining to do.

DONALD Trump appears to have back-pedalled his position on claims of Russian interference in the US election.

In an overnight rant on Twitter, the US President insisted he never denied that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 US campaign and said “they are laughing their asses off in Moscow”.

I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

The tweet was a reference to the first presidential debate between Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton in September 2016.

“I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC (Democratic National Convention),” he said during the debate. “She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay? You don’t know who broke into DNC.”

His post comes days after an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians with a plot to interfere in the US presidential election.

The investigation has seen former national security adviser Michael Flynn plead guilty for lying to the FBI about the nature of his connections with Russians during the campaign.

Likewise, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the extent of his contacts with Russia.

President Trump now insists he never denied Russian interference in the US election.

It’s not for nothing that fact-checking website Politifact deemed Mr Trump’s denial of Russian interference its 2017 “Lie of the Year”.

There are plenty of tweets, interviews and speech transcripts showing Mr Trump directly denying that Russia had anything to do with the election outcome.

According to the Washington Post ’s fact-checker for the President’s claims, Mr Trump has denied Russian interference a total of 44 times over his first year in the White House.

Over the past year he’s referred to it as a “ruse”, a “hoax”, “fake news”, a “made-up story” and “an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won”.

He even tweeted that it was “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history”.

This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017

As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2017

Just last month, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said of the hacking claims: “The Democrats know it’s a hoax. It’s an excuse for them having lost the election. They know it’s a hoax.”

He did repeatedly claim the Democrats had been colluding with Russia, but denied there was a link with his own campaign.

In a December interview with The New York Times, he said: “There was tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Democrats. There was no collusion with respect to my campaign.”

Many of his own tweets — all of which are still active — flat-out deny any Russian involvement:

Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017

The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017

Funny how the failing @nytimes is pushing Dems narrative that Russia is working for me because Putin said "Trump is a genius." America 1st!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2016

In order to try and deflect the horror and stupidity of the Wikileakes disaster, the Dems said maybe it is Russia dealing with Trump. Crazy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2016

He’s also repeatedly defended Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” he said of the Russian leader last November.

Likewise, when asked about Russian interference in a Reuters interview last July, the President said: “I said, ‘Did you do it?’ And he said, ‘No, I did not. Absolutely not.’ I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not.”

Experts have concluded that Russia interfered to help Mr Trump’s campaign.

During the presidential transition in December 2016, the CIA concluded that Russia had helped Mr Trump win the presidency, according to a report by the Washington Post.

The following month, the US intelligence community released a declassified report concluding that Russians had influenced the election.

However, investigators are yet to conclude whether Russian involvement actually changed the election outcome.

— With wires