WASHINGTON--U.S. President Donald Trump tried on Tuesday to calm a storm over his failure to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, saying he misspoke in a joint news conference in Helsinki.
Trump stunned the world on Monday by shying away from criticizing the Russian leader for Moscow's actions to undermine the election and cast doubt on U.S. intelligence agencies, prompting calls by some U.S. lawmakers for tougher sanctions and other actions to punish Russia.
"I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't,'" Trump told reporters at the White House, more than 24 hours after his appearance with Putin. "The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia.'"
Trump, who was given numerous opportunities to publicly rebuke Putin during the news conference in Helsinki, instead praised the Russian leader for his "strong and powerful" denial of the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian state meddled in the election. Standing alongside Putin in Helsinki, Trump told reporters he was not convinced it was Moscow. "I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said.
Although he faced pressure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump said not a single disparaging word in public about Moscow on any of the issues that have brought relations between the two nuclear powers to the lowest ebb since the Cold War. Republicans and Democrats accused him of siding with an adversary rather than his own country.
Mainly reading from a prepared statement, Trump said on Tuesday he had complete faith in U.S. intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusions. But he appeared to veer from his script to also hedge on who was responsible for the election interference. "It could be other people also - there's a lot of people out there," he said.
Democrats dismissed Trump's statement as political damage control. "This has to be recognized for what it is, which is simply an effort to clean up the mess he made yesterday, which is beyond the capacity of any short statement to repair," said Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump's comments on Tuesday were another sign of weakness, particularly his statement that it "could be other people" responsible for the election meddling. "He made a horrible statement, tried to back off, but couldn't even bring himself to back off," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "It shows the weakness of President Trump that he is afraid to confront Mr. Putin directly."
The political firestorm over Trump's performance in Helsinki has engulfed the administration and spread to his fellow Republicans, eclipsing most of the frequent controversies that have erupted during Trump's turbulent 18 months in office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Russia was not a friend of the United States and warned against a repeat of election meddling in November's congressional elections.
"There are a lot of us who fully understand what happened in 2016 and it really better not happen again in 2018," McConnell said.
Some lawmakers said they would seek remedies against Russia in Congress. Several senators from both parties backed tougher sanctions on Russia. McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, who called Russia's government "menacing," said their chambers could consider additional sanctions on Russia.
