Helsinki: Sided with Putin Over U.S. Intelligence
Standing next to Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly sided with Russia's denial of election interference over the unanimous assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies — days after 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted for hacking.
On July 16, 2018, at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Trump was asked whether he believed U.S. intelligence agencies' unanimous conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. Standing next to Putin, Trump replied:
"I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."
This statement came just days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team had indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for hacking Democratic Party systems during the 2016 campaign. The CIA, FBI, NSA, and Director of National Intelligence had all unanimously concluded that Russia conducted the interference campaign.
The remark drew extraordinary bipartisan condemnation. Republican senators called it "bizarre" and said Trump "made us look like a pushover." Former CIA Director John Brennan called it "nothing short of treasonous." Trump later attempted damage control by claiming he had misspoken due to a "double negative" — saying he meant "I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia" — a revision few found credible.
The spectacle of an American president publicly taking the word of a hostile foreign leader over his own intelligence community on matters of national security was without precedent in modern American history.