Putin: Trump appeared to agree Moscow did not interfere in election

[Allybeboba]

From CNN

'Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters Saturday that US President Donald Trump appeared to agree with Moscow's position that it did not interfere in last year's election during their bilateral talks at the G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday.
"I repeat, he asked a lot of questions on this matter," Putin said at a Saturday press conference. "I answered as many as I could answer. I think he took it into consideration and agreed with it. But you should ask him what his opinion is on that."
Putin went on to say Trump raised the issue of election meddling and "devoted a lot of time to this issue. Our position is well-known, and I repeated it — there is no basis to think that Russia interfered in the election process. What's important is that we agreed that the uncertainty on these matters cannot exist, especially in the future."
The Russian president also said the two leaders agreed to set up a joint working group of experts "to find a way to control the cyberspace security together, ensure strict compliance with the international law in this area, (and) prevent interference in the domestic affairs of foreign countries."
Asked specifically how he views his relationship with Trump, Putin said, "and regarding personal relationship ... I think it was established. I don't know how this will sound, but I'll tell you how I see it. TV Trump is very different from the real person, he is absolutely specific, absolutely adequate in his perception of the dialogue partner, he analyzes things quickly, replies to the raised questions or new elements of the conversation. So I think if our future relations will unfold the same way as our meeting yesterday, there is every reason to believe that we can restore, at least partially, the level of cooperation we need."
Trump and Putin met for over two hours Friday afternoon, discussing interference in US elections and ending with an agreement on curbing violence in Syria.'

Full CNN article
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/08/politi...nce/index.html

[Redwyrm]

Now if Putin can say that while drinking a glass of water and Trump sits on his lap, I'll be impressed.

[Blade Wolf]

convincing Trump is about as hard as convincing a 2 year old that you took his nose.

[Lenonis]

Of course Trump doesn't think Moscow interfered in the election. Admitted such would also require admitting that his victory was not due to his overwhelming popularity (lulz) which his giant ego would never, ever allow.

Trump will go to his grave thinking that he really won the popular vote in a historic win and the only irregularities were millions of illegals that masked his true victory.

[Blur4stuff]

Even many republican politicians admit Russia interfered at this point. Having this argument makes me feel as though I'm talking to flat earthers or climate change deniers.

[Travis B]

Maybe Trump should tweet "Vladimir Putin better hope there are no 'tapes' of our conversation before he starts leaking to the press!"

[Skroe]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-...rticle/2008751

Trump Caves to Putin
What President Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin tells us about the future of Russian-American affairs.
10:20 PM, JUL 07, 2017 | By STEPHEN F. HAYES

If Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s readout of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin is a preview of the Trump administration’s approach to Russia, it’s going to be a rough three and a half years. In a diplomatic depantsing that will have repercussions far beyond Russia, Tillerson’s comments did more to further Russia’s interests than Russian propaganda outlets could have possibly hoped to accomplish themselves.

Tillerson told reporters that Trump and Putin “acknowledged the challenges of cyber threats and interference in the democratic processes of the United States and other countries.” Well then.

Vladimir Putin acknowledged generic “challenges” of unspecified “cyber threats” related to U.S. elections and those in other countries? Who cares? What Putin wouldn’t acknowledge was far more important: The Russians were the source of the cyber threats.

Let us remember the January 6, 2017 assessment prepared by America’s director of National Intelligence:\

Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the U.S.-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations . . .
We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.

That is the graveyard Tillerson is whistling past.

Tillerson reported that after the two men had a “robust and lengthy exchange on the subject,” Putin “denied such involvement, as I think he has in the past.” Putin’s denials are false, of course, and the offenses are grave. Russia’s election meddling is part of a longer pattern of provocation largely ignored by the Obama administration and now tolerated by Trump. But the president apparently didn’t want to let reality intrude on his desire for better relations (he began his meeting by telling Putin that he was “honored” to meet him) and Tillerson didn’t seem to care. “So, more work to be done on that regard,” Tillerson said, dismissively.

If that’s where the issue rested after today’s meeting, that’d be bad enough. But Tillerson made matters worse. He offered additional thoughts on what “more work” might be done. Trump and Putin, Tillerson announced, “agreed to explore creating a framework around which the two countries can work together to better understand how to deal with these cyber threats.”

A framework for understanding? Not consequences? Not sanctions? Not even the threat of retaliation from the United States?

There is no need for a framework of understanding. Vladimir Putin understands what this diplo-feculence means: The Trump administration will not punish him in any way for his aggressive attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. And we don’t need a framework for understanding to see what that’ll mean for future elections—here and elsewhere: It will happen again.

The intelligence community predicted as much six months before Friday’s meeting. As the January 6 report said: “We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes.”

In the unlikely event that there was any remaining confusion about U.S. capitulation, Tillerson used a response to a reporter’s question to end it. “I think what the two presidents, I think rightly, focused on is how do we move forward; how do we move forward from here.”

The embarrassment wasn’t limited to interference in U.S. elections. There was Syria, too, where Tillerson claimed that American and Russian “objectives are exactly the same.”

It is absurd to claim that our objectives in Syria—where the United States has called for the end of the Assad regime that Russia is supporting—are exactly the same. Forget being identical; in most cases, they aren’t even coincidental.

On April 6, President Trump ordered strikes on the Shayrat Air Base in Syria in response to chemical weapons attacks conducted by the Syrian regime. In a statement from Mar-a-Lago that evening, Trump said: “Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women, and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”

That same night, U.S. officials told me that Russia knew in advance of the chemical weapons attacks. The Russians were flying a drone over a hospital treating victims of the attack, a U.S. official later told the Associated Press: “Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons. The U.S. official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn’t have been a coincidence, and that Russia must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment.”

So in April the U.S. government accused Russia of complicity in an unprovoked chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. And on Friday, the secretary of State claimed that America and Russia have exactly the same objectives in Syria.

And then Tillerson went even further. On matters where the United States and Russia have different views, he said, it may be that the Russians (who are actively backing a dictator slaughtering his own people) have got “the right approach and we’ve got the wrong approach.” Imagine for a moment the reaction from Republicans if John Kerry had made such a claim.

The Trump administration is selling the Putin meeting as a success because America, Russia, and Jordan have agreed to a ceasefire in southwest Syria. One can hope. The better bet is that the consequences of this public American obsequiousness will last much longer than any ceasefire, particularly one that doesn’t involve the main combatants on the ground.

Tillerson’s readout of the Trump-Putin makes clear that the president is poised to make the same mistakes on Russia made by his two predecessors. George W. Bush was seduced by Putin’s claims of deep faith. Barack Obama proposed a Russian reset despite abundant indications that a real rapprochement was improbable. Both attempts were naïve, but the Trump administration’s gullibility is far worse. In the intervening years, Russia has repeatedly flouted international law and engaged in aggressive, disruptive behavior—the military intervention in Ukraine and attempts to influence the US elections being the most notable examples.

The Trump administration has touted its approach to the world as “principled realism.” But what are the principles that lead to a naive embrace of an adversary? And what kind of realism requires a willful ignorance of reality?

Tillerson summarized the Trump-Putin meeting this way: “The two leaders, I would say, connected very quickly. There was a very clear positive chemistry between the two.”

Yes. And that’s the problem.

So let's lay a couple of things out.

(1) The above article was written by the Editor in Chief of the Weekly Standard, you know a conservative.

(2) Trump's supporters, who have been spending days excusing the inexcusable in just this latest incident, are betraying their country's interests to protect their little demi-god.

(3) Contrary to what Trump told us, he wouldn't be "tougher on Putin than anybody".


The story here is that the low-T Beta-Male President caved like the bitch he is. He should have humiliated Putin. Instead, he gave him everything he wanted.

[TheCount]

Trump: Mr. Putin did you interfere in our 2016 election? Some of our intelligence agencies seem to have things called "facts" that point the finger at Russia.
Putin: No
Trump: Good enough for me.
Trump Aide: Mr. President, you can't just take someone like Putin at his word. Its a very naive thing to do.
Trump: Enough out of you!! Mr. Putin is a very honest man, who would never do anything to harm me.

[Deleted]

The story here is that the low-T Beta-Male President caved like the bitch he is. He should have humiliated Putin. Instead, he gave him everything he wanted.

Even when its about syria. Putin wants a truce? Trump accepts.

Is this what Trump calls "The art of deal"? To actually agree to everything his russian supporter wants from him?

America has not just an incompetent president, but also a sycophant as presdient, who brown noses his biggest election helper.

[Adam Jensen]

I guess if Putin said he didn't interfere, then he didn't interfere.

Hey OJ, Did you commit that murder?
OJ: Nope
Glad we got that settled.

[zmp]

Perhaps Trump - the president of every Americans and America's proud face to the outside world - thought it wasnt a big deal before moving on to more important topics (whatever they may be).

[Lenonis]

Perhaps Trump - the president of every Americans and America's proud face to the outside world - thought it wasnt a big deal before moving on to more important topics (whatever they may be).

Given the opinion of Trump's ability to govern held by a majority of first world nations, I don't think "proud" is the word most people would use.

Also, it's more than a little laughable that you threw out there that there were more important issues than a foreign hostile nation interfering in our election, and yet weren't able to name a single one. If they were that important, you'd know it was discussed.

But you get an A for effort for your attempts to wave away yet another criticism. Keep up the fight good soldier.

[Xeones]

Perhaps Trump - the president of every Americans and America's proud face to the outside world - thought it wasnt a big deal before moving on to more important topics (whatever they may be).

Shameful. Absolutely shameful.

Anyways not a surprise that Putins puppet would go "Yes sir whatever you say sir".

[Belize]

Who do we believe, the ex-KGB agent that manipulates and lies all the time, or the serial-liar in chief?

Hmmm.

[Deleted]

Trump: Mr. Putin did you interfere in our 2016 election? Some of our intelligence agencies seem to have things called "facts" that point the finger at Russia.
Putin: No
Trump: Good enough for me.
Trump Aide: Mr. President, you can't just take someone like Putin at his word. Its a very naive thing to do.
Trump: Enough out of you!! Mr. Putin is a very honest man, who would never do anything to harm me.

I honestly believe that's pretty much how it happened.

[LaserSharkDFB]

Perhaps Trump - the president of every Americans and America's proud face to the outside world - thought it wasnt a big deal before moving on to more important topics (whatever they may be).

Yes. Proud. So proud, in fact, that he couldn't be bothered to go to the meeting that he was actually there for and sent his daughter instead.

So proud. Very president. Much huge. Wow.

[fengosa]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-...rticle/2008751



So let's lay a couple of things out.

(1) The above article was written by the Editor in Chief of the Weekly Standard, you know a conservative.

(2) Trump's supporters, who have been spending days excusing the inexcusable in just this latest incident, are betraying their country's interests to protect their little demi-god.

(3) Contrary to what Trump told us, he wouldn't be "tougher on Putin than anybody".


The story here is that the low-T Beta-Male President caved like the bitch he is. He should have humiliated Putin. Instead, he gave him everything he wanted.

Could you imagine if Obama was still president and treating Putin this way? Fox news would be skewering him 24-7.

[Sunseeker]

THIS is what a weak president looks like.

Trump agreed with Putin. The leader of a nation diametrically opposed to our goals said something about how an investigation against said leader is going and our president agreed with him.

This is what a weak president sounds like, fed what other leaders want him to think and ignorant to what's actually happening.

- - - Updated - - -

Could you imagine if Obama was still president and treating Putin this way? Fox news would be skewering him 24-7.

More simply put, THIS.

[LaserSharkDFB]

Could you imagine if Obama was still president and treating Putin this way? Fox news would be skewering him 24-7.

More importantly, Democrats would be skewering him 24/7, and rightly so. Conservatives think that Obama got a free pass with the media, but that isn't even remotely the case; it's just that they didn't criticize him on the things that conservatives disapprove of, like having a funny name or being black. Liberals don't do party unity very well these days, while conservatives (especially Trumpists) have it down so well it's killing the country.

[Mittens]

Now if Putin can say that while drinking a glass of water and Trump sits on his lap, I'll be impressed.

This is amazing.

OT: Trump is an idiot on the topic and should let his advisors do all their work for him.