US and Russia President Donald Trump now says he holds Russian President Vladimir Putin personally responsible for Russia interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Trump told CBS he considers Putin culpable because he is Russia's leader. The President has been cleaning up his remarks on Russia and the election ever since Monday's summit in Helsinki, Finland, where he sided with Putin and publicly accepted the Russian leader's denials over the assessments of US intelligence agencies. The New York Times reported that Trump knew about Russian interference two weeks before his inauguration in 2017. In a briefing he was "shown highly classified intelligence" that indicated Putin ordered up the cyberattacks. James Clapper, then the director of national intelligence, confirmed some of the details of the briefing during a "CNN Tonight" interview. Meanwhile, the White House is reportedly considering Putin's proposal to interrogate Americans in exchange for his government's assistance in the Russia investigation. In Helsinki, Trump called it an "interesting idea." But the State Department calls the whole thing "absolutely absurd." |
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