Putin says Trump was 'satisfied' with his answers on election meddling

President Trump and Vladimir Putin
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday President Trump seemed satisfied with his account of Moscow's innocence of manipulating the 2016 election during their first face-to-face meeting on Friday. This jibes with the account of the conversation provided by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but not with statements from U.S. officials.

Trump "asked a lot of questions on this subject," Putin said. "I, in as much as I was able, answered these questions. It seems to me that he took these [answers] on board and agreed with them, but in actual fact, it's best to ask him how he views this."

"I believe it would not be entirely appropriate on my part to disclose details of my discussion with Mr. Trump," he added. "He asked; I answered him. He asked pointed questions; I answered them. It seemed to me that he was satisfied with those answers."

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Putin also remarked that Trump is different in person than he appears on television, calling the American president "absolutely precise" and sounding a note of hope for future cooperation. Trump himself has yet to comment on the meeting beyond labeling it "tremendous."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.