Top Trump administration officials declined to push back on remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Trump appeared to accept his denial of meddling in the 2016 election.
“We are not gonna make comments about what other people say,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a gaggle on Air Force One with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Trump was returning to Washington from the G-20 summit in Hungary, Germany. on Saturday.
Reporters asked Mnuchin and McMaster to clarify if Trump accepted Putin denials of election interference. Neither refuted those claims pic.twitter.com/AQxfiFcqNz
— Eric Morrow ? (@morroweric) July 8, 2017
Mnuchin then said that Trump had very substantial discussions on election interference with Putin and pointed out that Trump and Putin agreed to create a new working group to combat cybersecurity.
Putin said during a news conference Saturday that he believes Trump was “satisfied” with his denial of meddling but told reporters they would have to ask Trump. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a separate press conference on Friday that Trump accepted the denial.
