President Trump told a reporter from Russian TV that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “great guy” and a “terrific person” following a meeting with the Russian leader at the G-20 Summit in Japan over the weekend.
A reporter from Russia 24, a Russian state-owned television station, approached Trump and asked him how he’d liked his meeting with Putin. Trump replied with praise for the Russian leader. “He is a great guy. I think we had a really good meeting. I think he is a good person, we started discussing trade. I think we should have trade between Russia and USA, two great countries. We had a great meeting yesterday. He is a terrific person,” Trump said.
The exchange was broadcast on Russian television.
Putin called Trump “a talented person” earlier this week, saying that Trump had won the 2016 election without any help from the Russia.
“Russia has been accused, and, strange as it may seem, it is still being accused of alleged interference in the U.S. election,” Putin said. “What happened in reality? Mr. Trump looked into his opponents’ attitude to him and saw changes in American society, and he took advantage of this.”
Ahead of the latest meeting between the two leaders, Trump was asked on Friday whether he would tell Russia not to meddle in the upcoming presidential election in 2020. Trump said, “yes, of course I will” and, smiling, turned to Putin and said, “Don’t meddle in the election.” Putin chuckled when he heard the translation.
When Trump was asked what the two planned to discuss, Trump said, “it’s a great honor to be with President Putin” and promised that “a lot of very positive things are going to come out of the relationship.”
Trump shed some light on his discussion with Putin at a press conference earlier Saturday.
One reporter told Trump, “On Russia, respectfully, it seemed like you didn’t really mean it when you said yesterday, ‘Don’t meddle in our elections, Mr. President,’ and then you guys both started laughing.”
Trump pushed back against the idea that he had been flippant. “Well, I did say it. You’re going to have to take a look at the words. I did say it,” he said. And, after going on a brief tangent about his desire to increase trade with Russia, Trump hinted that he talked with Putin about election interference “a little bit” during their private meeting.
Another reporter said, “I think I heard you mention that with Vladimir Putin you spoke about election interference privately as well. Did you speak to him in a sterner tone? Did you tell him there would be serious consequences?”
“No, I just, we talked about it,” Trump replied. “Hey, we talked about it.”
Trump then made it clear that Putin still denies Russia’s involvement in election interference. “You know he denies it totally, by the way, how many times can you get somebody to deny something? But he has in the past denied it. He has denied it also publicly. But we talked about it,” Trump said.
Despite Putin’s denials, the U.S. government released an Intelligence Committee Assessment in January 2017 which assigned blame to Russia and Putin himself.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report, released in April after a nearly two-year investigation, also concluded that the Russian government had interfered in the 2016 presidential election, including through social media disinformation efforts carried out by the Moscow-based Internet Research Agency and email hacking against Democratic National Committee carried out by Russian military intelligence. Mueller contended that the stolen emails were provided to WikiLeaks through Russia-operated fronts.
Unlike at his press conference in Helsinki in 2018, Trump notably did not indicate that he believed Putin’s denials on Saturday. At last summer’s press conference following a meeting with Putin, when asked whether he believed the U.S. intelligence agencies who had assigned blame to Russia for interfering in 2016 or whether he believed Putin’s denials, Trump said, “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.”
Trump also mentioned on Saturday that he and Putin also talked about putting caps on nuclear weapons acquisitions and other forms of arms control.
But the same reporter followed up on the issue of election interference, pressing Trump, “Did you raise what was in the Mueller report? Did you articulate to him that you thought interference happened?”
Rather than answering directly, Trump gave his standard answer on the results of Mueller’s investigation. “Well, the Mueller report was a very good report. It was a good report. I had 18 people that hated me. I had Mueller that was totally conflicted and obviously didn’t like me. He was totally conflicted. And yet, no obstruction, no collusion. That was a good report,” he said.
Mueller’s report stated that it did not establish any criminal coordination or conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Mueller did not reach a conclusion on obstruction of justice but laid out 10 possible instances of obstruction. Attorney General William Barr, along with then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, concluded that justice had not been obstructed.
Mueller is scheduled to testify publicly in front of the House Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees on July 17.
