Trump Sides with Putin Over U.S. Intel on Election Meddling; Trump Says We're All to Blame for Bad Relationship with Russia; Putin Said in Press Conference, I Wanted Donald Trump to Win Election; Christine people.
TAPPER: Moments ago, President Trump just tweeted his first public statement since the stunning press conference just hours ago here in Helsinki. President Trump writing, quote, as I said today, and many times before, I have great confidence in my intelligence people. However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future we cannot exclusively focus on the past. As the world's two largest nuclear powers we must get along, unquote. Let's talk about it with my experts here. Just to be clear, Susan, his full quote from the press conference was, I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I have to tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. That's the full sentence and you know, I come from a tradition where people say when you have a sentence in the word "but" in there, erase everything before the "but" and focus on what the meat of the sentences.</s>SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Well, the editor and me is cheering you on. But I have to say, Jake, listen, what are we seeing with the street? We are seeing our president in cleanup mode as he flies back to Washington. I think you are seeing strong pushback from Republicans. Donald Trump has sort of gotten used to actually Republicans acquiescing in most of the things that he has been doing recently in recent months. And so, perhaps he's reacting to the criticism, even from some of his allies. You see both Speaker Ryan and leader McConnell coming out and saying we believe the intelligence community. You have this really remarkable statement by Trump's own director of national intelligence who certainly he didn't read it the way that the President of the United States read it because he felt compelled to issue a statement. So, I don't think it was ambiguous as Trump said it at the press conference.</s>TAPPER: I agree.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: This is all revisionism now. I mean, days ago, we saw President Trump criticizing the criticism that he gets over Russia. Then why do you have to say all of this stuff. OK, so, he starts this tweet by talking about how he did express confidence in the intelligence community. But he only went to that after he went on and on about Hillary Clinton's e-mails and where is the server and went on this rant about that. Then almost as an aside at the end of that he says oh, I do have great confidence in my intelligence people. Or something like that. So, it's not as if he went right to that. You know what? He had confidence in British intelligence over the poisoning of the Skripals and that's why the U.S. expelled 60 Russian diplomats. So, you're going to believe another country's intelligence on something Russia did, which you also did not call out today.</s>TAPPER: No.</s>KOSINSKI: But then you are not going to believe your own country's intelligence on something you have refused to call out since the beginning.</s>TAPPER: Phil let's talk about director of national intelligence, Dan Coats. There's a lot of questions right now about how can he stay in this job after President Trump has so clearly undercut him before the world's stage siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying I don't know why Russia would do such a thing even though Coats told me they did. Do you think he should resign?</s>PHILIP MUDD, FORMER CIA COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: I don't think he should at the moment. I can see from the outside people saying, look he's being undercut by the President of the United States how can you have confidence in the President and stay in office. There's a different perspective, I mean, some of this is going to be his personal choice. But a different perspective is whether you're in the military, the intelligence community, the diplomatic service. You have to step back, and he's clearly sitting there saying, we have a President who sometimes take some liberties with the truth. Do you stay in -- he's a man who's had a storied career in U.S. government? Do you stay in and hold the president accountable or do you leave and potentially door open for the President to appoint somebody who's going to be a yes man? I can understand the debate within him saying, maybe -- I'm not saying he won't go -- but maybe I should stick around and make sure I hold the President accountable.</s>TAPPER: Everyone stay right there, I want to bring in Senator Jeff Flake, Republican, of Arizona. He's not running for re-election. He has been a critic of President Trump. Senator Flake thanks for joining us. How did it feel watching the press conference, watching President Trump next to Vladimir Putin essentially accepting Putin's denial that Russia did not launch the cyber-attack against the United States?</s>SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA (via phone): Well, I was just getting on a flight with a very sketchy wi-fi here. So, I'm getting bits and pieces for a while. But I have to tell you I was just floored by it. I mean, my expectations weren't that high. I worried about what the President might promise during the private meeting. But I certainly didn't expect to hear what we all heard during the press conference.</s>TAPPER: A headline in the "Washington Post" says that the press conference was everything Putin dreamed of. Where does this leave the United States Senate? What will you do in the Senate in terms of expressing in a tangible way, in an action, your opposition to what happened today?</s>FLAKE: I haven't even arrived at the capitol yet. I'm still in route from the airport. But I'm certainly going the sit down with my colleagues and see what we need to do. Four of my colleagues and I visited the countries close to Russia. We were in Finland just a week and a half ago, and in Latvians. And the thing was -- what the Latvians told us they here as far as Russian propaganda, the station out of Bastia, with a population 40 percent Russian speaking, is that NATO is weak. That we're split. That the United States is an unreliable ally. And how much that echoes what the President is saying I can't tell you. And just -- it's disheartening to them, I'm sure. And certainly, ought to be disheartening to all of us. And so, we'll see. When I get in the capitol and talk to my colleagues where we go from here.</s>TAPPER: Do you think that what happened today is such a dark day, so disastrous for this country, that President Trump should be challenged for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2020?</s>FLAKE: Well, I've said all along, I am probably not a good one to talk to on this, I felt all along that there ought to be a Republican primary just for no other reason, it's probably suicide mission for any other Republican right now. But it may not be a year and a half from now. But if nothing else, remind the Republicans out there what it means to be Republican and conservative. To be in favor of strong national defense and free trade and immigration. These things I'm afraid we're losing and that's -- so yes. Yes, I do hope that somebody runs.</s>TAPPER: All right. Republican Senator Jeff Flake, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate your time.</s>FLAKE: Thanks for having me. Bye.</s>TAPPER: Republican Congressman and former CIA officer, Will Hurd, joins me next with his reaction. Stay with us.