Trump Continues To Face Backlash After Appearing To Side With Putin Over US Intelligence
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) – President Trump is still dealing with the fallout of his press conference in Finland where he appeared to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin over America's intelligence agencies.
The political backlash was swift and bipartisan. That prompted the president to try to walk back his comments.
Trump has once again directly contradicted the findings of u-s intelligence agencies.
Last week Dan Coats the Director of National Intelligence said Russia has never stopped attacking America.
"These actions are persistent, they are pervasive, and they are meant to undermine America's democracy on a daily basis," Coats said.
This comes on the heels of Monday's press conference where the president said he didn't see any reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 presidential election
Tuesday, Trump said he misspoke.
"The sentence should have been: I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia," Trump explained. "Sort of a double negative. So you can put that in, and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself."
While much is being made about what the president said in his press conference, Democrats want to know what was said in the president's two-hour one-on-one meeting with Putin.
Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is calling on the Senate to hold a hearing with the US interpreter who was in the room.
"President Trump wanted no one else in the room," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). "So to have the translator come to testify and tell what happened there is an imperative."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to testify next week on what he may have learned about the meeting after it was over.
There is also a building consensus to vote on a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Marco Rubio that would lay out sanctions against Russia if it tries to interfere in the upcoming elections either this year or in 2020.
