President Donald Trump tried cleaning up the toxic spill. The Oval Office rug is still thick with radioactive sludge.
Alongside Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Monday, the President spent many minutes echoing the Kremlin line, parroting tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories and casting aspersions at his own intelligence agencies. In Washington Tuesday, he blamed mangled phrasing: “In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t.’ “
Wouldn’t you know, the excuse doesn’t wash.
Before the “would,” Trump was rambling nefarious nonsense about a supposedly missing DNC server — which the FBI actually got full access to. And was asked if he would denounce the 2016 meddling and tell Putin not to do it again; he passed.
Seconds after the disputed sentence, he said, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” Can’t explain that away.
Even Tuesday’s clumsy cleanup was half-hearted: “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian meddling in the 2016 election took place” was followed by, “Could have been other people also.” Do tell.
Millions who have seen Trump repeatedly vouchsafe for Putin wonder what Russia seems to have on this president.
We worry less about bodily fluids and more about liquid assets.
Congress has the power to force the release of his tax returns. Better late than never.