UPDATE: Trump administration officials are already denying the Russian foreign minister's statement that President Trump "accepted" Putin's assurance that Russia did not meddle with the election.
Pushback already from Trump administration: one official tells @NBCNews Lavrov's "not accurate" w/this comment --> https://t.co/URIsFPQYWT
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) July 7, 2017
---Original Post---
President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Hamburg, Germany. The two were attending the G20 Summit. The two met for just over two hours.
The meeting between President Donald Trump & Russian President Vladimir Putin is over, per official. It ran for roughly 2 hours & 16 min.
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) July 7, 2017
Trump apparently jumped right in to talk about the elephant in the room: Russian meddling with the 2016 election. Per reports from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, it was the first thing that Trump addressed in the meeting.
Putin then denied every allegation that Russia did any sort of interference in the election.
Wow. Tillerson says that @potus *opened the meeting* talking about Russian interference in the election.
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) July 7, 2017
Putin denied it.
According to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Trump "accepted" these claims that Russia did not do anything with the American election.
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Russian foreign minister says Trump accepted Putin's assurances that Russia didn't meddle in the U.S. election
— Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) July 7, 2017
Other topics discussed at the meeting include Syria, Ukraine, terrorism, and cybersecurity. Russia and the United States will set up a joint working group on cybersecurity.
Breaking: Lavrov says Trump brought up accusations of Russian hacking; Moscow and DC will set up joint working group on cybersecurity.
— Lucian Kim (@Lucian_Kim) July 7, 2017
The two leaders apparently got along quite well with "positive chemistry" between them.
Trump & Putin "connected very quickly," demonstrating a "positive chemistry," per Tillerson.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) July 7, 2017
Join the conversation as a VIP Member