President Donald Trump thinks that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election but also believes that there could have been other countries involved.
“Well I think it was Russia and I think it could have been other people and other countries. It could have been a lot of people that interfered,” Trump said at a press conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday.
“It could have very well been Russia but it could well have been other countries and I won’t be specific but I think a lot of people interfered,” Trump also said.
“The thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama when he was president found out about this in terms of if it were Russia, found out about it in August, now the election was in November, that’s a lot of time 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 … I think what happened was that he thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election and he said let’s not do anything about it. “
Trump downplayed the number of intelligence agencies that found that Russia has interfered in the presidential election, from 17 to only three or four. His comments were made just hours away from his first face-to-face encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking in Poland, Trump promised to work with the eastern European country to address Russia’s “destabilizing behavior” – something that the Kremlin has already rebuffed.
Trump wants to expand energy trade with Poland and help reduce Russia’s dominance over Poland’s energy. “So that you can never be held hostage by one supplier,” Trump said.
The United States recently delivered a shipment of natural gas to Poland and it plans to increase the partnership.
“I think we can enter a contract for LNG (liquefied natural gas) within the next 15 minutes, do you have anybody available to negotiate? It will take about 15 minutes. We’re becoming a great exporter of energy,” Trump said.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said he is convinced that Poland can be the hub for U.S. natural gas entering Europe.
Source: cnbc
Trump claims Russia could have ‘very well’ interfered in the US election