Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hit President Trump for backtracking from the remarks he made yesterday alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he expressed skepticism about the U.S. intelligence consensus that Russia had interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Schumer told reporters Tuesday that Trump was “24 hours too late” on the issue and that it should have happened in Helsinki on Tuesday, arguing further that it showed Putin another sign of weakness on the part of the president.
“While we were speaking, President Trump tried to squirm away from what he said yesterday,” Schumer told reporters during his weekly press conference. “It’s 24 hours too late and in the wrong place.”
“If the president can’t say directly to President Putin that he is wrong and we are right and our intelligence agencies are right, it’s ineffective and, worse, another sign of weakness,” Schumer said. “[It] tells President Putin, continue to take advantage of Donald Trump because he doesn’t have the courage, the strength, maybe not even the conviction to say to Putin’s face what he tried to say a few minutes ago.”
Schumer’s remarks came minutes after Trump told reporters at the White House that he misspoke during the press conference alongside Putin on Monday. Trump claimed that he has “full faith” in the intelligence community’s findings.
