US President Donald Trump is pushing back against his critics, saying he misspoke about Russia while he was in Helsinki. Members of his own party say the president damaged US credibility by publically contradicting his own intelligence agencies. CGTN'S Roee Ruttenberg has more.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump was doing damage control.

DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "It should've been obvious I thought it was obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn't. In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'. The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't or why it wouldn't be Russia.'"

In Helsinki, Trump was asked about U.S. intelligence reports that squarely blame Moscow for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Russia's denied any such involvement. And with President Vladimir Putin on stage beside him, Trump seemed to suggest he accepted his version over the American one. Back on U.S. soil, Trump now confirmed he accepts U.S. intelligence conclusions. He then welcomed a group of Republican lawmakers to the White House for talks. Members of his party had condemned Trump's behavior as shameful, and a disgrace.

PAUL RYAN REPUBLICAN, US HOUSE SPEAKER "Vladimir Putin does not share our values. We just conducted a year-long investigation into Russia's interference in our elections. They did interfere in elections. It's really clear, there should be no doubt about that."

BOB CORKER US REPUBLICAN SENATOR "To create an equivalence between our intelligence agency and what Putin is saying, and then for the president to say 'why would they do it -- Russia' I mean, just such a naive comment."

Newspaper headlines across the U.S. echoed the sentiment and many lawmakers demanded to know what, if anything, Trump offered Putin behind closed doors.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER US SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER "Our Republican colleagues need to join us in demanding testimony from the president's national security team that was in Helsinki and we need to do that immediately. We need hearings as soon as possible to assess what President Trump might have committed to President Putin in secret."

ROEE RUTTENBERG WASHINGTON DC "More than 40 leading Republicans have come out to publically criticize the President on this. Many of them have been vocal supporters of Trump in the past. So their apparent break from the President - at least on this issue - speaks volumes. The question now is - does the White House damage control do enough to fix this. Roee Ruttenberg, CGTN, in Washington."