{"id":45634,"date":"2018-07-17T18:43:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T18:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=45634"},"modified":"2018-07-17T18:43:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T18:43:02","slug":"trump-under-fire-after-putin-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=45634","title":{"rendered":"Trump under fire after Putin meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"International desk: There has been a barrage of criticism in the US after President Donald Trump defended Russia over claims of interference in the 2016 elections.<\/p>\n

At a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland, Mr Trump contradicted US intelligence agencies, saying Russia had no reason to meddle.<\/p>\n

The top Republican in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan, said Mr Trump must see that “Russia is not our ally”.<\/p>\n

Republican Senator John McCain said it was a “disgraceful performance”.<\/p>\n

Mr Putin denied the interference claim.<\/p>\n

The US and Russian presidents held nearly two hours of closed-door talks in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Monday.<\/p>\n

At a news conference after the summit, he was asked if he believed his own intelligence agencies or the Russian president when it came to allegations of meddling in the election.<\/p>\n

“President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be,” he replied.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump also blamed poor relations with Russia on past US administrations rather than Russian actions.<\/p>\n

US intelligence agencies concluded in 2016 that Russia was behind an effort to tip the scale of the US election against Hillary Clinton, with a state-authorised campaign of cyber attacks and fake news stories planted on social media.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump later backtracked, tweeting that he had “great confidence in my intelligence people”.<\/p>\n

n a strongly-worded statement, Mr Ryan said: “There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.<\/p>\n

He added that there was “no question” Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

Sen McCain, a key member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was a “disgraceful performance” by a US president.<\/p>\n

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,” Mr McCain said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Another senior Republican, Sen Lindsey Graham, also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted that it was a “missed opportunity… to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling”.<\/p>\n

In a series of tweets, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Trump's actions had “strengthened our adversaries while weakening our defences and those of our allies”.<\/p>\n

The US Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, also issued a statement saying that the intelligence community had been clear about Russia's “ongoing, pervasive attempts” to undermine US democracy.<\/p>\n

Former CIA director John Brennan said Mr Trump's news conference “was nothing short of treasonous”.<\/p>\n

“Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???” he tweeted.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Vice-President Mike Pence, in a speech at the US Department of Commerce, defended the summit and praised President Trump.<\/p>\n

Some US politicians had called for the summit to be cancelled after 12 Russian military intelligence agents were indicted last week, accused of hacking Hillary Clinton's election campaign.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the joint news conference, President Putin offered to allow US investigators to visit Russia to question the officers.<\/p>\n

He made it clear that, in return, Russia would want similar access to people in the US it suspects of criminal activity.<\/p>\n

In a later interview with Fox News, Mr Putin said it was “utterly ridiculous” that some people thought Russia could have influenced the US elections.<\/p>\n

He said US-Russian relations should not be “held hostage” to an internal political struggle in America.<\/p>\n

Mr Putin described the Helsinki meeting as “candid and useful” while Mr Trump said there had been “deeply productive dialogue”.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump said US-Russia relations had “never been worse” than before they met, but that had now changed.<\/p>\n

Relations between Russia and the West were severely strained by Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Russia's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International desk: There has been a barrage of criticism in the US after President Donald Trump defended Russia over claims of interference in the 2016 elections. At a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland, Mr Trump contradicted US intelligence agencies, saying Russia had no reason to meddle. The top Republican in Congress, House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n