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U.S politics

Given the firestorm that erupted over his joint press conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump had no choice but to walk back one comment he made in Finland on Monday.

In answering reporters’ questions Monday, Trump, standing feet from Putin, indicated skepticism over U.S. intelligence reports of Russian meddling in American politics.

On Tuesday, he said he had misspoken. “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said. He added that in Finland, he misspoke after noting Putin had denied Moscow’s interference. “I don’t see any reason why it would be,” the president said.

Yesterday, Trump said he meant to say, “I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia.”

So Trump, within 24 hours, said he meant something entirely different.

Again, he had no choice. While in Finland, he may have been attempting to be diplomatic toward Putin. U.S. politics intervened.

One wonders why a similar wave of protest did not follow former President Barack Obama’s much more egregious behavior toward Russia and other avowed enemies of the United States.

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