President Trump refused on Thursday to solely blame Russia for interference in the 2016 presidential election last year in a statement made less than a day before his first in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit.
“I think it was Russia, and it could have been other people in other countries,” Trump told a reporter during a press conference in Warsaw, Poland. “A lot of people interfere. It’s been happening for a long time.”
Trump insisted “nobody really knows” who tampered in America’s election process, which included fake news stories planted on social media in an attempt to sway the public.
Trump reiterated that the blame belongs to his predecessor, Barack Obama, for failing to act from the time he found out about suspected Russian meddling it in August until he left office in January.
“They say he choked. Well, I don’t think he choked,” Trump said. “I think he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, and he said, ‘Let’s not do anything about it.'”
While the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency have concluded Russia was the perpetrator of the attacks, Trump cited more than a dozen other intelligence-related agencies that have not come to the same conclusion, giving him reason to hold out.
“When I was sitting back listening about Iraq … Weapons of mass destruction, how everybody was 100 percent sure,” Trump said. “They were wrong and it led to a mess.”
Trump’s inaugural meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday is being widely followed for what he will or will not say to Putin about Russia’s involvement in the U.S. election.
President Trump criticizes former President Obama’s reaction to Russian interference in election pic.twitter.com/iqm0Pn0nu6
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) July 6, 2017
