Donald Trump Says He Misspoke On Russian Election Meddling

U.S President, Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election of the United States, that he misspoke by appearing to accept Vladimir Putin's denials over his intelligence chiefs.

Before a meeting with Republican lawmakers at the White House, Trump said, “I have felt very strongly that while Russia’s actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying that, and I’ve said this many times, I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place."

On Monday's joint news conference in Helsinki, Trump claimed that he had won the race fair and square, in his words, “I have President Putin, he just said it is not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

He offered a labourious explanation for his remarks, which triggered a firestorm, among opposition Democrats and members of his own Republican Party

Donald Trump said, “I actually went out and reviewed a clip of an answer that I gave, and I realize that there is need for some clarification. I thought it would be obvious but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t. In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’. The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia. So just to repeat it, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’ and the sentence should have been, and I thought it would be maybe a little bit unclear on the transcript or unclear on the actual video, the sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.'”

Trump may be feeling under pressure to reverse course after he publicly challenged the US intelligence conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S election.