ICYMI: Reince Priebus: President Trump Did Not Accept Putin's Denial of Russian Meddling
WALLACE: I want to clear up, speaking of foreign policy meetings, what really happened in the Putin-Trump summit in Hamburg on Friday. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says that after Putin denied meddling in election, he, Trump, this is his quote, said that "he accepts these assertions,” and President Trump said, this is Lavrov quoting Trump “that certain circles in the U.S. are still exaggerating, although they cannot prove this, the topic of Russian interference with the U.S. election.” Reince is that true? Did the president say what Lavrov says he said?
PRIEBUS: No, it’s not true. The president absolutely did not believe the denial of President Putin. What the president did is he immediately came into the meeting, talked about Russian meddling in the U.S. election, went after that issue at least two separate times. This was not just a five-minute piece of the conversation, this was an extensive portion of the meeting. And after going at it with President Putin more than once, two times, maybe even three times, the president at that point after spending a large part of the meeting on the subject moved on to other topics.
WALLACE: So to be clear..
PRIEBUS: Syria and ISIS…
WALLACE: And we are going to get to that. He does not accept Putin’s denial, he believes the Russians meddled?
PRIEBUS: He has answered this question many times. He said they probably meddled in the election. They did meddle in the election. But one thing he also says which drives the media crazy, but is an absolute fact is that others have as well, and that's true. China has, North Korea has, and have consistently over many years. Yes. So he believes that Russia probably committed all of these acts that we've been told of, but he also believes that other countries also participated.
ICYMI: Reince Priebus Says Democrat Attacks On Russia Meeting Are Purely Political
WALLACE: How do you respond to Democrats like Chuck Schumer who were saying it's disgraceful that the president comes out of this meeting and basically says we are going to move forward?
PRIEBUS: Right, well we can solve world peace and world famine and I think Senator Schumer would say the same thing. So look, they are programmatic when it comes to trashing the president. When you look at what President Trump did in Europe and recommitting ourselves to our NATO allies, committing ourselves to our partners in Europe, our partners across the world, committing ourselves to the values of the West, delivering a speech in Poland which many people say are the best speeches since Ronald Reagan. You look at what he did in Hamburg. I mean other than our small disagreements on trade and the Paris Agreement, we have unification with our Allies.
WALLACE: I want to clear up, speaking of foreign policy meetings, what really happened in the Putin-Trump summit in Hamburg on Friday. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says that after Putin denied meddling in election, he, Trump, this is his quote, said that "he accepts these assertions,” and President Trump said, this is Lavrov quoting Trump “that certain circles in the U.S. are still exaggerating, although they cannot prove this, the topic of Russian interference with the U.S. election.” Reince is that true? Did the president say what Lavrov says he said?
PRIEBUS: No, it’s not true. The president absolutely did not believe the denial of President Putin. What the president did is he immediately came into the meeting, talked about Russian meddling in the U.S. election, went after that issue at least two separate times. This was not just a five-minute piece of the conversation, this was an extensive portion of the meeting. And after going at it with President Putin more than once, two times, maybe even three times, the president at that point after spending a large part of the meeting on the subject moved on to other topics.
WALLACE: So to be clear..
PRIEBUS: Syria and ISIS…
WALLACE: And we are going to get to that. He does not accept Putin’s denial, he believes the Russians meddled?
PRIEBUS: He has answered this question many times. He said they probably meddled in the election. They did meddle in the election. But one thing he also says which drives the media crazy, but is an absolute fact is that others have as well, and that's true. China has, North Korea has, and have consistently over many years. Yes. So he believes that Russia probably committed all of these acts that we've been told of, but he also believes that other countries also participated.
ICYMI: Reince Priebus Says Democrat Attacks On Russia Meeting Are Purely Political
WALLACE: How do you respond to Democrats like Chuck Schumer who were saying it's disgraceful that the president comes out of this meeting and basically says we are going to move forward?
PRIEBUS: Right, well we can solve world peace and world famine and I think Senator Schumer would say the same thing. So look, they are programmatic when it comes to trashing the president. When you look at what President Trump did in Europe and recommitting ourselves to our NATO allies, committing ourselves to our partners in Europe, our partners across the world, committing ourselves to the values of the West, delivering a speech in Poland which many people say are the best speeches since Ronald Reagan. You look at what he did in Hamburg. I mean other than our small disagreements on trade and the Paris Agreement, we have unification with our Allies.
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