Donald Trump has long been loath to concede that operatives of the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election, feeling as he does that the media like to talk about it mainly to suggest that he only defeated Hillary Clinton thanks to the aid of foreign troublemakers. It’s understandable that he would feel some inner conflict about dealing with this subject. His adversaries on the left wouldn’t give a fig about Russian interference if the presidential contest had gone the other way, and the obsessive manner with which many Democrats treat the issue is manifestly about delegitimizing Trump’s presidency rather than holding Russia accountable. Even so, Trump is a grown-up and should be able to distinguish between (a) the now well-documented verdict that Russian operatives interfered in the U.S. election and (b) the as-yet unproven accusation that the Trump campaign actively participated in the Russian efforts. Yet Trump has consistently failed to distinguish between the two claims. That failure led to an appalling performance in Helsinki on July 16, where he publicly took the word of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin over that of his own intelligence personnel.

Asked at the joint press conference whether he credits American intelligence officials’ conclusion that the Russian government was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s server, Trump could have declined to answer or been vague. Instead the president complained again that the FBI didn’t confiscate his 2016 opponent’s email server and then took Putin’s side: “My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats and some others. They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”