President Donald Trump said Thursday he will bring up the issue of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election when he meets with President Vladimir Putin next week, The Washington Post is reporting.
But Trump said there is not much he can do if Putin denies it.
"Look, he may," Trump said. “What am I going to do? He may deny it. All I can do is say, ‘Did you?’ And, ‘Don’t do it again.’ But he may deny it. You’ll be the first to know."
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Helsinki next week
The president’s comments came during a press conference at the NATO summit in Brussels, where he referred to Putin as a “competitor” and not an enemy.
"Somebody was saying, is he an enemy?” Trump said. “He’s not my enemy. Is he your friend? No, I don’t know him very much. Hopefully, someday, he’ll be a friend. It could happen."
Trump said world leaders at the NATO conference welcomed his scheduled meeting with the Russian leader.
“They actually thanked me for meeting with President Putin,” Trump said. “They thought it was a great thing that I was doing it, and they gave us our best wishes, or their best wishes.”
Trump and Putin had brief meetings on the sidelines of international summits last year. However, plans for a full-fledged summit were pushed back as a result of the investigations into Russia’s election meddling.
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