Trump Team Can’t Deny If Trump Accepts Putin’s Election Hack Denial
Earlier today, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters after the G20 Summit that he assured Trump that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election.
And Putin said that Trump agreed with him, but directed reporters to ask Trump directly.
So when Trump refused to do a press conference after the G20 Summit, reporters went to Trump advisors to ask whether or not Trump accepts Putin’s explanation.
The advisors declined three times on Saturday to rebut these claims.
Aboard Air Force One, chief economist Gary Cohn, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin all declined to knock down those remarks when pressed by reporters, deferring instead to Trump himself.
“President Trump will be happy to make statements himself about that,” Mnuchin said. “But President Trump handled himself brilliantly.”
Mnuchin continued, “It was very clear that he made his position felt, and after a very substantive dialogue on this, they agreed to move on to other discussions.”
However, the three people asked were not invited to the meeting between Trump and Putin. Only Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attended.
Tillerson told reporters that Trump confronted Putin on the Russia’s election interference, but many have questioned if he actually pushed the issue.
