President Trump said Tuesday that he wants “no help from any country” — and hasn’t accepted any — in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.
“I want no help from any country and I haven’t been given help from any country,” Trump said when asked during a press conference in India whether he’d commit to not accepting foreign assistance.
His remarks came after news reports last week said intelligence officials had briefed Republican and Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee that the Kremlin was trying to help Trump win in November.
On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Sen. Bernie Sanders had been informed about Moscow’s intention to back his own campaign.
That prompted the Vermont Democrat to say: “I say to Mr. (Vladimir) Putin, if elected president, trust me, you are not going to [be] interfering in American elections.”
Trump has accused Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who led the impeachment inquiry, of leaking the intelligence that Russia is trying to meddle in the election to help Sanders.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien also has dismissed claims the Kremlin is trying to help Trump get re-elected, saying he hadn’t seen “any intelligence to support the reports that were leaked out of the House.”
Supporters cheer as President Trump arrives to deliver remarks at a Keep America Great rally in Las Vegas.AFP via Getty ImagesThe Kremlin has denied it’s working on Trump’s behalf.
Trump last week replaced Director of National Intelligence Robert Maguire with Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and a political loyalist, after intelligence officials briefed the lawmakers, including Schiff.
During the press conference Tuesday, Trump also declined to say whether he believed US intelligence assessments that the Kremlin is trying to interfere in the upcoming election.
Asked what his message to the Russian leader might be, the president pivoted to the reports about Sanders, the Democratic front-runner.
“They went to see Bernie and they told Bernie about something having to do with they want Bernie to win. They did not tell me, intelligence never told me,” Trump said. “… They never told me anything about that and it was sort of a strange thing that they went to Bernie.”
With Post wires
