2016 ELECTION/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump said on Tuesday [7-17-18] that he had misspoken a day earlier in Helsinki, Finland, when he appeared to take the word of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies on Russian election meddling in 2016. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he ‘accepts’ those findings. Mr. Trump said the misunderstanding arose from his use of a ‘double negative’…Mr. Trump had been criticized even by many in his own party for rejecting the assessments of American intelligence and law enforcement. In walking back those remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he reviewed the transcript from the joint news conference on Monday [7-16-18] and he ‘realized that there is a need for clarification.’ Mr. Trump emerged from talks with Mr. Putin on Monday and publicly challenged the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and said the Russian president was ‘extremely strong and powerful in his denial.’ Mr. Trump also said that he saw no reason why Russia would have been behind the election hacking.”
–Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman, “Trump Now Says He Accepts U.S. Intelligence Reports on Russian Election Meddling,” The New York Times online, July 17, 2018