President Trump seemed optimistic about the outcome of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit, calling it “tremendous.”
President Trump seemed optimistic about the outcome of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit, calling it “tremendous.”
The U.S. leader made the remark at a press gathering with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday, saying, “[Secretary of State] Rex [Tillerson] and I had a tremendous meeting yesterday with President Putin, and we've had really great meetings with a lot of people.”
Trump then went on to call his relationship with May “very special.”
However, his extended session with Putin from Friday is still attracting significant attention.
The length was notable, as the two men and their top foreign policy officials were only supposed to meet for 30 minutes, but the session went on for nearly 2 hours and 16 minutes.
News outlets are also pointing out that both sides appear to have offered differing accounts of one key issue--Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
According to The Atlantic, Tillerson indicated to reporters after the meeting that Trump had immediately brought up the hacking claims and went on to mention them multiple times despite Putin’s assurances that his government was not involved.
The publication then writes that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov separately told the media that “Trump had accepted Putin’s version of the events, which is that Russia is innocent of any involvement. U.S. officials denied that.”
NBC's Hallie Jackson tweeted, “Pushback already from Trump administration: one official tells @NBCNews Lavrov's ‘not accurate’ w/this comment.”