INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued a statement Saturday [7-21-18] saying that he did not mean ‘to be disrespectful or criticize the actions’ of President Donald Trump during a recent interview in which he appeared surprised to learn that the White House had decided to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington in the fall. The widely publicized interview took place Thursday [7-19-18] at the Aspen Security Forum. During the interview, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell told Coats on stage that the White House had just announced ‘Putin is coming to the White House in the fall.’ Coats asked Mitchell to repeat herself and then broke into laughter before saying, ‘OK, that’s going to be special.’ In his statement on Saturday, Coats said, ‘some press coverage has mischaracterized my intentions in responding to breaking news presented to me during a live interview. My admittedly awkward response was in no way meant to be disrespectful or criticize the actions of the President.”
–Evan Perez and Clare Foran, “Intelligence chief says he didn’t mean ‘to be disrespectful’ about Trump’s Putin invite,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 21, 2018 8:02 pm