Trump backtracks on Russia statements, says he misspoke

US President Donald Trump returned from his Europe trip last night and spoke to journalists at the White House, saying that he misspoke during the press conference he had together with Vladimir Putin, where he claimed he believed Russia had no interference in the 2016 US election, despite wide consensus at home over this matter.

“I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’,” Trump told reporters a day after his appearance with Putin, reading from a prepared statement. “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’”. However, he also went off-script and added “It could be other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.”

In Helsinki, Trump praised Putin for his “strong and powerful” denial of the conclusions of US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the election, despite pressure from intelligence agencies, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line.

Both Democrats and Republicans accused him of siding with an adversary rather than his own country.

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