Shock as Trump backs Putin on election meddling at summit

[Norm dePlume]

So it seems one of the people Putin wants to question is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. And, somehow, the White House couldn't manage an immediate rejection of that idea.

The Russian president, at Monday’s news conference, had suggested that his government would allow special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators question the 12 Russian military intelligence officials it indicted last week if the U.S. would reciprocate by allowing the Russian government to interrogate certain Americans with ties to Bill Browder, an American-born financier who has lobbied heavily against the Russian government.

Trump called the idea an "incredible offer" during the news conference. And on Wednesday, after it became clear that Russia also wanted to question former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, Sanders said that the president would “meet with his team” on Putin's proposal, setting off a Russia-related backlash against the Trump administration for the third straight day.

By Thursday, as the Senate prepared to formally rebuke Trump, the White House reversed course.

“It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it," Sanders said in a statement. "Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt.”

"He'll meet with his team" is a very poor way of saying "No way. Absolutely not."

[scott]

So it seems one of the people Putin wants to question is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. And, somehow, the White House couldn't manage an immediate rejection of that idea.



"He'll meet with his team" is a very poor way of saying "No way. Absolutely not."

Odd.

Most definitely odd.

[Norm dePlume]

Down the memory hole.

This is new. For as long as there have been White House web sites, I cannot remember any transcripts of presidential press conferences being edited. I expect that from the Kremlin. Not from the White House.

Here's the lying fake news media that's oh-so-unfair to Trump:

No, the White House didn’t intentionally edit a question to Putin out of a video

...

Our transcript and the White House’s were apparently based on the feed that runs only in the right channel. A White House official told CNN’s Abby Phillip that its transcript “did not have Mason’s audio turned up in time,” referring to Reuters reporter Jeff Mason, who asked the question.

This is not a conspiracy from the White House. While the White House certainly has a track record of misrepresenting facts, this would have been a remarkably futile revision of reality to attempt. As it turns out, they didn’t.