2016 ELECTION/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The White House struggled on Wednesday [7-18-18] to contain the furor over President Donald Trump’s heavily criticized summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, denying Trump ever meant to say that Moscow was no longer targeting the United States. Trump, facing a political uproar over his failure to confront Putin during their Helsinki summit on Monday [7-16-18] over Russia’s 2016 U.S. election meddling, adopted his usual defiant posture, calling his critics deranged. Asked by reporters before a morning Cabinet meeting at the White House whether Russia was still targeting the United States, Trump shook his head and said, ‘No.’ But at a later news briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the president was saying ‘no’ to answering questions not to the question itself. Sanders said Trump believes the threat from Russia to undermine November’s U.S. midterm elections still exists and that Moscow would still target American elections…U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia’s efforts to undermine elections are continuing and now target the Nov. 6 congressional elections.”
-Roberta Rampton, “White House struggles to contain fallout from Trump-Putin summit,” Reuters, July 18, 2018 11:07 am