Ex-squeeze me?

(Nov. 12, 2017)

President Donald Trump told reporters that he believes both the U.S. intelligence agencies when they say Russia meddled AND Russian President Vladimir Putin's sincerity in claiming that his country did not interfere.

Citizens, the POTUS...

"What I said that...I'm surprised that there's...uh... any conflict on this...what I said there, was that I believe he believes that, and that's very important for somebody to believe. I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election."

"As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our Intel agencies, our intelligence agencies... I've worked with them very strongly... uh... there weren't 17 as there was previously reported, there were actually 4... but they were saying there was 17, there were actually 4...but as currently... uh, led by... fine people...I believe very much in our intelligence agencies. Now...at the same time...uh...I wanna be able 'cuz I think it's very important to get along with Russia, to get along with China, to get along with Vietnam, to get along with lots of countries because we have a lot of things we have to solve. And frankly, Russia, China in particular can help us with the North Korea problem which is one of our truly great problems."

"So,...I'm not looking to stand and start argung with somebody when there's reporters all around and camera recording our conversation. I think it was very obvious to everybody...I believe that President Putin really feels and he feels strongly that he did not meddle our election.

What he believes is what he believes. What I believe is that we have to get to work and I think everybody understood this that heard the answer. We have to get to work to solve Syria, to solve North Korea, to solve Ukraine, to solve terrorism."

"Russia has been very, very heavily sanctioned. They were sanctioned... at a... very high level...and that took place very recently. It's now time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken. Those are very important things. And I feel that having... Russia...in a friendly posture as a opposed to always fighting with them is an asset to the world and an asset to our country, not a liability."

"We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar." David Brooks