Trump defends Putin summit, promises 'big results'
He promises 'big results' after claiming he misspoke in joint news conference
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said yesterday he got on well with Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit in Finland and "big results will come".
"So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki.
"Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well, which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come," he said on Twitter.
"While the Nato meeting in Brussels was an acknowledged triumph, with billions of dollars more being put up by member countries at a faster pace, the meeting with Russia may prove to be, in the long run, an even greater success. Many positive things will come out of that meeting," he tweeted.
On Tuesday Mr Trump had sought to calm the storm over what critics said was his failure to hold Mr Putin accountable for what US intelligence agencies said was meddling in the 2016 US election, saying he misspoke in the joint news conference.
"I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't,'" Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, more than 24 hours after his appearance with Mr Putin.
"The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia.'"
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after his news conference with Mr Putin found that 55 per cent of registered US voters disapproved of his handling of relations with Russia, while 37 per cent approved.
Mr Trump, who had the opportunity to publicly rebuke Mr Putin during the news conference in Helsinki, instead praised the Russian leader for his "strong and powerful" denial of the conclusions of US intelligence agencies - that Russia meddled in the election.
Republicans and Democrats accused him of siding with an adversary rather than his own country.
Despite a televised interview and numerous tweets, Mr Trump did not correct himself until 27 hours later.
Reading mainly from a statement, Mr Trump said on Tuesday that he had complete faith in US intelligence agencies and accepted their conclusions.
He then veered from his script to hedge on who was responsible for the election interference: "It could be other people also. There is a lot of people out there."
His backtracking failed to quell the controversy. Democrats dismissed Mr Trump's statement as political damage control.
"This has to be recognised 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 Mr Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Mr 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," Mr 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 Mr Trump's performance in Helsinki has engulfed the administration and spread to his fellow Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Russia was not a friend of the US 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," Mr McConnell said. - REUTERS
Trump now says no ‘time limit’ to denuclearise N Korea
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there is no hurry to denuclearise North Korea under his accord with Mr Kim Jong Un - a shift in tone from when the US leader said the process would start very soon.
"Discussions are ongoing and they're going very, very well," Mr Trump told reporters.
"We have no time limit. We have no speed limit."
Mr Trump said he discussed North Korea with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday at their summit in Helsinki.
"President Putin is going to be involved in the sense that he is with us," Mr Trump said.
The US president metKim on June 12 for an unprecedented summit in Singapore during which the North Korean leader pledged to work toward denuclearisation of the peninsula.
But the accord did not spell out a timetable for the process or say how it would be carried out. Diplomats are now expected to hammer out the details.
More than a month later, no concrete progress has been reported and North Korea has complained the Americans are making unilateral demands. - AFP
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