Putin: Trump ‘Asked A Lot of Questions’ and Seemed ‘Satisfied’ with Answers on Russian Election Interference (Video)

White House Has Yet to Release Readout of Trump-Putin Meeting

Breaking with tradition, Donald Trump has apparently opted not to hold a press conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg—leaving other world leaders, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, to address matters concerning the United States.

The White House has yet to release a readout of Donald Trump’s meeting with Putin, though they’ve released readouts of subsequent meetings, leaving most to speculate about the two hours and sixteen minutes the two world leaders spent together. (The meeting was originally scheduled for thirty minutes.)

Conflicting reports surfaced following the meeting, and although Donald Trump could have utilized the press to clarify his discussions with the Russian President on the matter of the country’s interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, he instead allowed Vladimir Putin to do so.

Pressed on the matter during his own news conference, Putin said that he believes the two were “able to establish a relationship.” He continued that, although he didn’t know how it would sound, he’d reveal his real thoughts on the matter.

“The Trump you see on TV is very different from Trump, the real person. He is very specific,” Putin said. “He is able to understand what you tell him, he analyzes your words pretty quickly and he is able to respond. He answers your questions or he responds to whatever may come up in the course of the discussion.”

“So I think if we keep going like that, if we keep building our relationship we did yesterday,” he continued, “there is every reason to believe that we will be able to restore, at least partially, the level of interaction that we need.”

17 U.S. government intelligence agencies have unanimously agreed that Russia worked to disrupt Americans’ opinions in an attempt to install the candidate that Putin preferred—Donald Trump.

Despite this, Trump seemed to warmly greet the man who’d attacked our democracy, even joking about journalists insulting Trump and sharing a laugh. (Putin has allegedly had reporters murdered.)

“What he did was, he asked a lot of questions about this,” Putin said when a CBS representative asked specifically about the leaders’ interaction on the Russian interference. “And I responded to those questions as much as I could. So I think he did accept what I said, but you’d have to ask him what he thinks about this.” 

An NBC representative followed up, noting that the White House hadn’t released any information on their meeting. “We’ll talk to the White House,” Putin responded. “We’ll tell them to fix that.” (Also of note, journalists likely would have asked the U.S. President, had Trump held a press conference.)

The reporter pressed further, asking for Trump’s specific response to Putin’s assertion that Russia did not interfere in the election, but Putin said it would be “improper for [him] to tell you in detail what we talked about with President Trump.”

“He asked a question, I responded to this question,” he said. “He asked a few more questions and I gave him my answers, and I think he was satisfied with my answers.”

The full press conference can be seen below:

 

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