President Donald Trump choosing not to endorse the U.S. intelligence community's assessment Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election is "the most serious mistake of his presidency," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tweeted Monday.
Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "extremely strong and powerful" in his denial when the two met privately Monday in Helsinki, Finland. He also called special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's meddling a "disaster," during a joint press conference with Putin.
Putin again denied Moscow ever interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and proposed an "expert council" to improve relations between the countries.
"President Putin says it's not Russia; I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said when asked whether he believed his own intelligence agencies over the Russian president.
U.S. intelligence agencies in 2016 concluded Russia was behind an effort to tip the scale of the election toward Trump, with a state-authorized campaign of cyber-attacks and fake news stories planted on social media.
Many Republican lawmakers slammed Trump's comments.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement: "There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world. That is not just the finding of the American intelligence community but also the House Committee on Intelligence."
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