Backlash forces President to reverse

Donald Trump has buckled to the storm of criticism over his appeasement of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Actress Alyssa Milano at a protest outside the White House yesterday. Picture: AP

Donald Trump has buckled to the storm of criticism over his appeasement of Russia’s Vladimir Putin by saying he does believe the word of US intelligence agencies over Russia.

The US President played down the backflip as a clarification, saying that he misspoke at the Hel­sinki joint press conference, giving the wrong impression about his attitude to Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Blaming the misunderstanding of his use of a “double negative”, Mr Trump said: “The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’ a sort of double negative. So you can put that in and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”

At the press conference with the Russian President in Helsinki, Mr Trump said when discussing foreign interference in the US election: “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia”.

He also appeared to lend credence to Mr Putin’s denial of Russian involvement when he said the Russian was “extremely strong and powerful in his denials”.

Mr Trump’s Helsinki claim that he believed the word of Mr Putin over US intelligence sparked a bipartisan fury in Washington that has shocked the White House.

House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell led a host of senior Republicans, including senator John McCain and former speaker News Gingrich, in criticising the President.

Mr Trump said yesterday said he realised there was “a need for clarification” after he reviewed the transcript of the joint news conference in Helsinki early on Tuesday (Australian time).

However, he added yesterday, others may have also been involved in trying to interfere in the election. He did not say who they may be.

“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,” Mr Trump said.

He added that “there was no collusion at all” — a reference to one of the areas special counsel Robert Mueller in probing as part of his broad Russia investigation.

The President also moved to limit the damage his initial comments caused to the reputation of intelligence agencies by saying yesterday: “I have full faith in our intelligence agencies”.

“I have on numerous occasions noted our intelligence findings that Russians attempted to interfere in our elections,” he said.

After Mr Trump’s Helsinki comments, National Intelligence director Daniel Coats robustly defended his agencies, saying they provided impartial intelligence. “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security,” Mr Coates said.

Democrat Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said the President’s comments yesterday amounted to a backflip.

“(He) tried to squirm away from what he said yesterday,” Senator Schumer said. “It’s 24 hours late and in the wrong place.”

Earlier, Mr Trump blamed the media for its negative coverage of the Helsinki summit, saying his meeting with Mr Putin was even better than his summit several days earlier with NATO nations.

“While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way — the Fake News is going Crazy,” he tweeted.

Earlier yesterday, before Mr Trump modified his Helsinki comments, Senator McConnell issued a staunch defence of Europe over Russia. “We believe the European Union countries are our friends and the Russians are not. They’ve demonstrated that in all the obvious ways over the last few years with the annexation of Crimea, the invasion of eastern Ukraine, not to mention the indisputable evidence that they tried to impact the 2016 election,” he said.

During his European tour Mr Trump described the EU as a “foe” and in Helsinki he embraced Mr Putin warmly.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia.