President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he accepts the conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, but that there "could be other people also."
Why it matters: Trump's remarks come after he faced sharp criticism, including from his friends and allies, for his performance during a press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday.
Paul Nakasone, who heads both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, has directed both security branches to coordinate actions to counter future Russian interference in this year’s midterm elections, the Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima reports.
Why it matters: U.S. security agencies are taking action on Russian meddling without guidance from the White House — which now stands in the crosshairs of U.S. intelligence assessments on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections. President Trump’s stance was highlighted Monday when he was unable to stand behind U.S. intelligence and condemn Russian meddling during his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin holds damaging information over President Trump, and has outlined five ways the GOP-held Congress should respond to Russia's election meddling and Monday's bizarre Trump-Putin press conference.
Between the lines: Republicans are calling all of the shots when it comes to introducing legislation or subpoenaing information from the administration.
Addressing a huge crowd in South Africa on the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth, former President Barack Obama offered some guidance for what he described as the "strange and uncertain times" in which we live.
"On Madiba’s 100th birthday, we now stand at a crossroads. A moment in time in which two very different visions of humanity’s future compete for the hearts and the minds of citizens around the world."
President Trump is making major changes to Air Force One, confirming a report last week by Axios' Mike Allen.
"[I] said, 'I wonder if we should use the same baby blue colors?' And we're not. Air Force One is going to be incredible. It's gonna be the top of the line, the top in the world. And it's gonna be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate."
The backdrop: The White House had said in February that Trump negotiated a $3.9 billion deal with Boeing for the new planes. Trump told Glor he was able to save $1.5 billion and that the current model is 30 years old.
President Trump's warm embrace of Vladimir Putin at their summit in Helsinki has rightly drawn sharp criticism from across the political spectrum. Though Trump leads the far stronger country, it often seemed as if he was on the defensive while Putin set the tone and agenda.
Why it matters: Following Trump's rhetorical attacks on NATO allies in Brussels last week, the summit will be remembered for normalizing an adversary while weakening transatlantic solidarity. And it stands to deepen the administration's highly contradictory approach to Russia.
President Trump sucking up to Vladamir Putin after the summit in Helsinki yesterday was such an unbelievable, indelible moment that many deflated White House officials didn’t even bother to defend or explain it.
Between the lines: The prevailing theory among Trump aides and alumni is pretty simple. "He can’t separate meddling from colluding," said one source close to Trump. "He can’t publicly express any nuanced view because he thinks it concedes maybe there's something he did wrong."
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has scrapped Republicans' plans to allow a vote on a Democratic bill seeking to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and instead the House will vote Wednesday on a measure to support the agency, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Monday.
The backdrop: While the initial bill would have failed to garner enough support to pass, Republicans hoped to use the vote to energize their base ahead of this year’s midterm elections. But Ryan, fearing that a vote could backfire if Democrats uniformly decided to oppose the measure, decided it wasn't worth the risk, Politico reports.
President Trump, in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity following his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, characterized Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation as a "phony, witch hunt deal” that’s driven "a wedge" between the U.S. and Moscow, adding that Putin has called it "a shame.”
"He felt it was very hard for me to make a deal because of, you know, all of this nonsense."
