To the absolute shock of most in the liberal media, President Trump was the one to bring up Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election during his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Saturday. In the lead up to Trump’s foreign trip to the G20 summit, many in the liberal media were claiming that Trump wouldn’t bring up Russia’ interference at all. But after finding out that he, in fact, did, they then switched to questioning whose account they should believe. “So, what are we to believe without an independent confirmation of either,” questioned NBC Anchor Willie Geist on Sunday Today.
“Basically backing up Tillerson's account in The New York Times this morning of that meeting, saying: ‘Trump went in, it was the first thing he talked about, he pressed Putin on whether or not there was meddling,’” Geist said, giving the account from the Trump side. “The other side from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who came out of the meeting and said: ‘Well actually, President Trump sort of accepted our position that we didn't do anything. And in fact, complained his opponents were exaggerating the issue.’”
Geist seemed to find himself at an impasse of whose word he and the American people should trust. “So, what are we to believe without an independent confirmation of either,” he asked to Meet the Press moderator, Chuck Todd.
Almost unbelievably, Todd seemed to assert that the claims of the Russians were the ones he thinks are truthful. “I think President Trump's tweet just now says it all, Willie. He said: ‘I've already given my opinion,’” Todd said, recalling a tweet the President sent out earlier that morning. “And we know the opinion he gave 24 hours before meeting Vladimir Putin while in Poland when he said could have been Russia, could have been somebody else.”
Just as a reminder: Anything Todd says needs to be taken with a heaping tablespoon of salt because he and a panel on MTP Daily recent bemoaned about having been taught to be impartial as journalists.
NBC’s Katy Tur, a known Trump despiser, agreed with Todd’s assessment, saying that:
He was given a chance, as Chuck just said, 24 hours earlier by our own Hallie Jackson: “Can you say definitively that Russia interfered in the election?” And he refused to do it then. He equivocated, it could be China, it could be anybody, nobody really knows. And that is where this President stands. It is notable that he will not publicly doubt Vladimir Putin, but he will publicly doubt the assessment of our intelligence community.
All three of them complained about how Trump questioned “the intelligence community, bringing up the no WMDs in Iraq controversy,” according to Todd. But it’s hypocritical of them to whine about that when they had/have colleagues at MSNBC who claimed, on air, that President Bush lied to get us into a war in Iraq.
Todd also questioned the administration’s position of wanting to “move forward” with Russia. “So, the question is whether how many Republicans on Capitol Hill are comfortable with the idea of let’s move forward,” he said. Of course, the country can’t simply move forward, but during the Clinton years, the media wanted nothing more than the Congressional and special investigations to end so they could push the Real Agenda.
Prior to Trump’s meeting with Putin, NBC snidely remarked about how “the allegations of Russian intervention in the election have rocked the leaders’ early romance.” Many in the liberal media were also relying on anonymous sources to claim that Trump wasn’t going to question Putin about the election meddling at all. But what we do know is that Trump did bring it up and it was discussed for roughly 40 minutes in a meeting that lasted a little over two hours.
Transcript below:
NBC
Sunday Today
July 9, 2017
8:04:58 AM EasternWILLIE GEIST: Let me, Chuck, start with you down in D.C., playing off these tweets from the President. Basically backing up Tillerson's account in The New York Times this morning of that meeting, saying: Trump went in, it was the first thing he talked about, he pressed Putin on whether or not there was meddling. He said, quote, “Did you do this?” It was described by Tillerson camp as a heated exchange. That's one description of that meeting. The other side from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who came out of the meeting and said: “Well actually, President Trump sort of accepted our position that we didn't do anything. And in fact, complained his opponents were exaggerating the issue.” So, what are we to believe without an independent confirmation of either?
CHUCK TODD: I think President Trump's tweet just now says it all, Willie. He said: “I've already given my opinion.” And we know the opinion he gave 24 hours before meeting Vladimir Putin while in Poland when he said could have been Russia, could have been somebody else. And then questioning the intelligence community, bringing up the no WMDs in Iraq controversy. So, I think we know his stance and he just made it clear, “I've already given my opinion.” He didn't restate it. But we know what his opinion is.
So, the question is whether how many Republicans on Capitol Hill are comfortable with the idea of let’s move forward. That was Tillerson's message that is now President Trump's message. Can you just move forward with Russia without doing a severe punishment over what they did in 2016? The Trump administration would like to. The question is will the rest of the Republican Party go along with it.
GEIST: Katie, there's no moving forward really when you have two congressional investigations and Bob Mueller special counsel looking at it. But just to go back to this line from the tweet just a few minutes ago from President Trump, as Chuck said: “I've already given my opinion.” What exactly is his opinion? Because at times he says it was Russia, maybe it was China, we don't really know who it was. Who does he believe did this?
KATY TUR: I think his opinion is just that. That he doesn't want to accept the information that he’s being given, the intelligence he’s being given by his intelligence community, which is that Putin ordered an attack-- a hack on our electoral system. And that’s what he’s been told repeatedly, but it’s not something he’s come out and said publically.
He was given a chance, as Chuck just said, 24 hours earlier by our own Hallie Jackson: “Can you say definitively that Russia interfered in the election?” And he refused to do it then. He equivocated, it could be China, it could be anybody, nobody really knows. And that is where this President stands. It is notable that he will not publicly doubt Vladimir Putin, but he will publicly doubt the assessment of our intelligence community. That's something that we have not seen in American politics before, certainly not when the President is standing on foreign soil.
GEIST: And with the Polish president bringing up the failure of WMD with our intelligence community, recalling that for the world.
(…)
