The White House(WARSAW, Poland) — President Trump on Thursday appeared to cast doubt again on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, saying in Poland ahead of a major speech that there could have been other actors involved and that “nobody really knows for sure.”
“I think it was Russia, but I think it was probably other people and/or countries, and I see nothing wrong with that statement. Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure,” Trump said in his first press conference overseas as president.
The president again placed blame on his predecessor, Barack Obama, for not taking stronger action to confront Russia’s interference in the election, accusing the former president of not taking action because “he thought Clinton was going to win the election.”
“He did nothing about it. Why did he do nothing about it? He was told it was Russia by the CIA, as I understand it. It was well-reported. He did nothing about it. They say he choked. I don’t think he choked. I think what happens is he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election and said, ‘Let’s not do anything about it.’ Had he thought the other way, he would have done something about it,” the president said.
“If he thought I was going to win, he would have done plenty about it.”
The president has recently turned his focus to blaming Obama for not taking action to confront Russia’s activities in interfering with the election after months of questioning Russia’s role in interfering in the election and decrying the Russia story as “fake news.”
As recently as December, Trump openly entertained the concept that it could have been “somebody sitting in a bed someplace” who hacked the Democratic National Committee ahead of the election.
“They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace. I mean, they have no idea,” he said.
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