Trump now holds Putin responsible for election meddling

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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he holds Russian President Vladimir Putin personally responsible for Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

“Just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country. So certainly as the leader of a country you would have to hold him responsible, yes,” Trump told CBS News in an interview.

Trump said he had been "very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling, we can't have any of that."

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives US President Donald Trump a soccer ball during their joint press conference in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. /VCG Photo

Trump has been under bipartisan fire in Washington for failing to publicly confront Putin over the election interference at the press conference that followed their Helsinki talks.

Four key takeaways at Trump-Putin summit

Trump sparks confusion over Russian meddling

Trump has also appeared on several occasions to question the US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 vote in a bid to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

He did this in Helsinki, too, and executed a convoluted walkback of those remarks on Tuesday, saying he misspoke in Finland.

Again on Wednesday, he told CBS he agreed with those US findings.

US President Donald Trump (R) and Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, laugh during a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

"Yeah and I've said that before," he said. "I have said that numerous times before, and I would say that is true, yeah."

Trump: Never a president 'as tough on Russia'

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump claimed that no US president has been as "tough" as him on Russia.

"We're doing very well, probably as well as anybody has ever done with Russia," Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House. "Look at what we've done. Look at sanctions.

"And I think President Putin knows that better than anybody," Trump said. "He understands it, and he's not happy about it.

US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they meet in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. /VCG Photo

"And he shouldn't be happy about it because there's never been a president as tough on Russia as I have been."

But when asked if Russia was still targeting the United States, Trump clearly appeared to reply "no" – an assertion that would contradict the assessment of US intelligence chief Dan Coats, who said on Monday that Russia was involved in "ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy."

That forced a tortured clarification of his remarks for the second day in a row.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, in the face of repeated questioning from reporters, insisted that Trump was saying "no" to further questions from reporters and not replying to the query about Russia.

She said the threat to the US electoral system "still exists, which is why we are taking steps to prevent it."

FBI chief: Russia meddled, whatever Putin and Trump say

FBI director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that the US intelligence community stands by its view that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election, despite Putin's denial this week to Trump.

Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, at the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn Building at the US Capitol, June 28, 2018. /VCG Photo

"The intelligence community's assessment has not changed. My view has not changed, which is that Russia attempted to interfere with the last election and that it continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day," Wray said when asked about Putin's denial to Trump at their summit in Helsinki on Monday.

Wray, who was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, said that the FBI has not seen yet any specific actions targeting US election infrastructure, compared to 2016, when Russian hackers targeted voter registration and voting management computers across the country, according to US intelligence.

"But certainly other efforts, what I would call malign influence operations, are very active. And we could be just a moment away from going to the next level," he said. "For me, it's a threat that we need to take extremely seriously and respond to with fierce determination and focus."

Asked if he saw, like Trump, that other countries were involved, Wray said some countries would indeed try to influence US politics in various ways "going forward."

"There is no question that Russia has been by far the most aggressive actor," he added.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters