President Trump on Sunday posted a series of tweets about his meeting with Vladimir Putin.
President Trump posted a series of tweets on Sunday about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg, Germany.
Trump wrote, "I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion."
He continued, "We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!"
Trump also tweeted about the issues concerning election hacking and cybersecurity.
He said, "Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe. Questions were asked about why the CIA & FBI had to ask the DNC 13 times for their SERVER, and were rejected, still don't have it. Fake News said 17 intel agencies when actually 4 (had to apologize). Why did Obama do NOTHING when he had info before election?"
Trump covered the topic of sanctions in his tweets as well, noting, "Sanctions were not discussed at my meeting with President Putin. Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian & Syrian problems are solved!"
Both sides have a differing accounts of the exchange between Trump and Putin on Friday.
Putin reportedly indicated that during their meeting, President Trump seemed to accept his assurances that Russia was not involved in the 2016 U.S. election.
According to the Washington Post, Putin told the media on Saturday, “It seemed to me that he took it into account, and agreed.”
Putin added, “I feel as though my answers satisfied him.”
His position echoes comments made the day before by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who reportedly said that Trump eventually accepted Putin’s denials.
However, multiple U.S. media outlets are reporting that U.S. officials have spoken out against this account.
NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson tweeted, “Pushback already from Trump administration: one official tells @NBCNews Lavrov's ‘not accurate’ w/this comment.”
As the Atlantic points out, it may be difficult to assess what really happened during the extended meeting because there were only six people in attendance--including interpreters.
