Donald Trump has sown further confusion about his attitude to Russia’s alleged meddling in US elections, questioning intelligence reports that the Kremlin is still seeking to undermine American democracy.
“For the third straight day, President Trump cast doubt on whether he views Russia as a threat,” says The Washington Post - although his press secretary blamed the row on another misunderstanding.
On Tuesday, Trump claimed he had meant to say he saw no reason why Russia “wouldn’t” have been behind attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election, although he actually said the opposite.
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In follow-up questions yesterday, he was asked by a reporter: “Is Russia still targeting the US, Mr President?”
Trump responded: “Thank you very much. No.”
The reporter replied: “No? You don’t believe that to be the case?”
Trump repeated: “No.”
However, the BBC reports, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders “said Mr Trump was saying ‘no’ to answering more questions”, not to the question itself.
Earlier, the president had appeared to lay the blame for past incidents on Vladimir Putin. “As the leader of a country you would have to hold him responsible,” he told CBS Evening News. But Trump “stopped short of saying that if the intelligence services were correct in their assessment, then Putin must be lying”, The Guardian reports.
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