White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to a question at the White House press briefing Tuesday about whether President Trump “finally accepts” that Russia meddled in the 2016 election from NBC’s Kristen Welker.
“Absolutely,” Sanders replied, “and the president has acknowledged that multiple times before. “He acknowledged it during the transition, he acknowledged it during a press conference in Poland, and he acknowledged it before a third time at a press event in Poland.”
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders when asked if Pres. Trump acknowledges Russians tried to meddle in 2016 election: "It's very clear that Russia meddled in the election." https://t.co/n7TqA3VDnW pic.twitter.com/vEWQrg2igc
— ABC News (@ABC) February 20, 2018
In a January 2017 news conference as president-elect, Trump said "as far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people."
During a July 2017 press conference in Poland, he said "well I think it was Russia and I think it could have been other people and other countries.
Sanders chided the media for getting “confused” in their reporting of the issue.
“I think, one of the places where you guys seem to get very confused, and it seems to happen regularly, the president hasn’t said that Russia didn’t meddle, what he’s saying is that it didn’t have an impact and it certainly wasn’t with help from the Trump campaign,” Sanders emphasized. “It’s very clear that Russia meddled in the election, it’s also very clear that it didn’t have an impact on the election and it’s also very clear that the Trump campaign didn’t collude with the Russians in any way for this process to take place.”
The New York Times pointed out earlier this week times that Trump has cast doubt on claims that Russia meddled in the election.