“”In Helsinki, I had a great meeting with Putin. We discussed everything. I had a great meeting. I had a great meeting. We got along really well. By the way, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. That’s a really good thing. Now we’re being hindered by the Russian hoax — it’s a hoax, OK?” – Donald Trump (at 1 minute, 20 seconds into the video by CBC).
This dismissal of “the Russian hoax” came only hours after the White House presented a briefing from the administration’s top national security officials underscoring a pervasive, ongoing, 24/7 effort by Russia to weaken American democracy and disrupt the 2018 elections.
“The reality is, it’s going to take all of us working together to hold the field, because this threat is not going away. As I have said consistently: Russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day.
This is a threat we need to take extremely seriously, and to tackle and respond to with fierce determination and focus.”– Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
“The intelligence community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming U.S. elections, both the midterms and the presidential elections of 2020.
In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States.” – Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence
“Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and it has become clear that they are the target of our adversaries, who seek, as the DNI just said, to sow discord and undermine our way of life.” – Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security
When reporters asked Mr. Coats about the substance of the Helsinki meeting – 17 days earlier, which the President boasted about in the video above, the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged that he was not privy to what was said: “I’m not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at Helsinki.”
Photo: screen grab from C-SPAN.