Tillerson Shocked How Trump Addressed Election Hack With Putin
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the only high-level American official allowed in the room when Trump met with Putin.
According to the New York Times, Tillerson “urged his boss to hit Mr. Putin hard on the issue.” However, Tillerson later told an associate how he was “stunned” how Trump handled the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, Trump casually told Putin, “I’m going to get this out of the way: Did you do this?”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters confirmed that Trump wasn’t “confrontational.”
“U.S. President Trump said that he heard firm assertions from Russian President Putin that it is not true and that Russian authorities have not meddled in the elections,” Mr. Lavrov told journalists at the G20 Summit.
Lavrov also told journalists that Trump “accepts these assertions — that’s it.” He added that Trump complained about opponents who sought to “exaggerate” the level of Russia’s involvement.
On the other hand, a senior White House official told New York Times that Tillerson said Trump grilled Putin for 40 minutes on the election interference.
However, Trump refused to hold a press conference after the summit, and would not answer any questions from reporters.
[image via screengrab]
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