President Trump admitted to being at first confused by the level of outrage leveled at him following his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. But, after seeing the transcript, which made it sound like he didn't believe Russia interfered in our elections, he felt the need to clarify. The issue, he said, was the language he used. He tried to clear things up in a statement at the White House.
"In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't.' The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't or why it wouldn't be Russia,'" President Trump says https://t.co/ZU0DDFnp0P pic.twitter.com/8FfCRAsCXQ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 17, 2018
Trump said he believed the intelligence community that Russia was the main aggressor in our elections.
“I've said this many times: I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.”
He added that he has "full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies, always have."
A CNN panel tasked with analyzing Trump's clarification were irked by what they heard.
It made things "worse," according to Dana Bash, because it's so not who he is. "Who knows who wrote that for him."
Gloria Borger said it was obvious he was being "forced" to read the script in front of him. He was being hold "hostage."
Jim Sciutto then observed some contradictions, namely Trump's 180 on his faith in his intelligence officers. The president said he accepted their assertions about Russia, but in the same breath added the election interference could have been orchestrated by "others."