On Thursday, the White House said Trump “disagrees” with Putin’s offer to swap the questioning of 12 Russians accused of 2016 election interference for an interview with the former USA ambassador.
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“I don’t know what happened”, Coats added, when asked about Putin’s meetings with Trump in Helsinki.
“I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed”, Trump said.
Coats took the extraordinary step of publicly contradicting Trump shortly after the president’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki, saying the American intelligence community stands by its assessment.
During a post-summit news conference on Monday, the president seemed to favor Putin’s denials over the USA intelligence community’s assessment that Russian Federation interfered in the election in order to benefit Trump.
The White House was finding it hard to explain statements made by Trump after the Helsinki meeting as uncertainty spread throughout the government about whether he had reached agreements with Putin on Syria and Ukraine, leaving his military and diplomatic corps in the dark, the New York Times reported. He said: “The two presidents, as it seemed to me, talked very openly, genuinely, spoke about their concerns and tried to find common ground”.
“If he had asked me how that ought to be conducted, I would have suggested a different way”, Coats said. Now that he’s the country’s top intelligence official, Coats said he prefers to stay out of the headlines.
It comes after Mr Putin, asked in Helsinki whether he would extradite the 12 Russian intelligence agents indicted in the United States for hacking Democratic Party computers, said he would meet the United States government “halfway”. The White House did ultimately object to one proposal from Putin to hand over two Americans, including former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Mike McFaul, for questioning.
Trump had praised the proposal on Monday as an “incredible offer” and Sanders later described it as an “interesting idea” that was being discussed internally.
In turn, national security experts said, Putin played Trump like a fiddle.
Trump received harsh backlash following the Helsinki summit by downplaying claims Russian Federation meddled in the USA 2016 presidential election, thereby appearing to discount his own intelligence services.
Something we know was discussed was an offer from Putin to allow United States investigators question Russians in exchange for Moscow being allowed question United States citizens, including a former ambassador.
President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin speak at a summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
It prompted angry rebukes from Republicans as well as Democrats and forced the president into a rare public climbdown.
He said he hadn’t seen Mr. Trump’s invitation himself, but that “Russia was always open to such proposals”.
“If the Russians want a better relationship, trips to the White House aren’t going to help”, he added.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that meeting may come this fall.
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Before the Senate could vote on the nonbinding measure, however, the White House issued a statement walking back Trump’s previous endorsement.
