President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not discuss alleged election meddling on Saturday, despite Trump saying they did, according to Putin’s office, The Hill reports.
Putin’s press secretary Dmitri Peskov told CNN that the two leaders did not discuss the alleged Russian interference in last year’s U.S. presidential elections. Trump and Putin met on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam.
When asked about his meeting with Putin, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Putin denied attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election. “I just asked him again. He said he as absolutely did not meddle in our election, he did not do what they are saying he did.” Trump said, adding that “he isn’t going to argue with Putin about whether he did or didn’t seek to meddle.”
“I can’t stand there and argue with him, I would rather have him get out of Syria. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he has nothing to do with that. Now, you are not going to get into an argument, you are going to start talking about Syria and the Ukraine.” Trump stressed.
The US intelligence community has already concluded that Russia tried to sway the poll in favour of Trump, and the Department of Justice has appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to examine any possible co-ordination from Trump’s team, and several key former aides have already been named, BBC writes.
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