President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday with the goal of improving relations between the United States and Russia.
Despite claiming that the summit with the Russian leader was a success, Trump came under intense criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for his soft tone that fell short of denouncing Putin and his government after numerous U.S. intelligence agencies accused the Russian government of meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Additionally, Trump was panned widely for setting up an equivalence between the U.S. and Russia for what led to the disintegrating relationship between the two countries.
“I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish,” the president said to reporters.
When confronted on holding Russia responsible, Trump said, “My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats, came to me 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.”
He then walked back those comments a day later, saying he meant “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be.”
Following his walk-back, Trump defended his policies on dealing with Russia, saying, “There’s been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia. All you have to do is look at the numbers. Look at what we’ve done. Look at sanctions. Look at ambassadors not there. Look, unfortunately, at what happened in Syria recently. And I think President Putin knows that better than anybody, certainly a lot better than the media. He understands it. And he’s not happy about it, and he shouldn’t be happy about it — because there’s never been a president as tough on Russia as I have been.”
