Blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of a longtime U.S. enemy, President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to "clarify" his public undermining of American intelligence agencies, saying he had misspoken when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
"The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't, or why it wouldn't be Russia" instead of "why it would," Trump said, in a rare admission of error by the bombastic U.S. leader. His comment came — amid rising rebuke by his own party — about 27 hours after his original, widely reported statement, which he made at a Monday summit in Helsinki standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place," Trump said Tuesday. But he added, as he usually does, "It could be other people also. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all."
Moments earlier, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell issued a public reassurance to U.S. allies in NATO and Europe with whom Trump clashed during his frenzied Europe trip last week.
"The European countries are our friends, and the Russians are not," McConnell said.
The scripted cleanup dealt with only the latest of Trump's problematic statements during his week-long trip, in which he sent the NATO alliance into emergency session and assailed British Prime Minister Theresa May as she was hosting him for an official visit.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was trying to "squirm away" from his comments alongside Putin. "It's 24 hours too late and in the wrong place," he said.
Trump still maintained that his meetings with NATO allies went well and his summit with Putin "even better."
This reference to diplomatic success carried an edge, too, since the barrage of criticism and insults he delivered in Brussels and London was hardly well-received.
And the reaction back home has been immediate and visceral, among fellow Republicans as well as usual Trump critics. "Shameful," ''disgraceful," ''weak," were a few of the comments. Makes the U.S. "look like a pushover," said GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.
On Capitol Hill, top Republican leaders said they were open to slapping fresh sanctions on Russia but showed no signs of acting any time soon.
"Let's be very clear, just so everybody knows: Russia did meddle with our elections," said House Speaker Paul Ryan. "What we intend to do is make sure they don't get away with it again and also to help our allies."
In the Senate, Schumer called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top officials to appear before Congress and tell exactly what happened during Trump's two-hour private session with Putin.
Schumer also urged the Senate to take up legislation to boost security for U.S. elections and to revive a measure passed earlier by the Judiciary Committee to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.
But minority Democrats have few tools to push their priorities.
In the House, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi planned a vote Tuesday in support of the intelligence committee's findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Senators had floated a similar idea earlier, but The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, said sanctions may be preferable to a nonbinding resolution that amounts to "just some messaging exercise."
Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the first step was to get Pompeo to appear, "hopefully" next week.
EARLIER:
WASHINGTON — Unbowed by the broad condemnation of his embrace of a longtime U.S. enemy, President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that his summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin went "even better" than his meeting with NATO allies last week in Brussels.
The tweeted defense came a day after Trump openly questioned his own intelligence agencies' findings that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to his benefit, and he seemed to accept Putin's insistence that Moscow's hands were clean.
Trump said his NATO meeting was "great" but he "had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way - the Fake News is going Crazy!"
The reaction back home was immediate and visceral, among fellow Republicans as well as usual Trump critics. "Shameful," ''disgraceful," ''weak," were a few of the comments. Makes the U.S. "look like a pushover," said GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.
Trump's meeting with Putin in Helsinki was his first time sharing the international stage with a man he has described as an important U.S. competitor — but whom he has also praised a strong, effective leader.
Standing alongside Putin, Trump steered clear of any confrontation with the Russian, questioning American intelligence and last week's federal indictments that accused 12 Russians of hacking into Democratic email accounts to hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016.
"I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.
"He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said.
His skepticism drew a quick formal statement — almost a rebuttal — from Trump's director of national Intelligence, Dan Coats.
"We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security," Coats said.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.