People aren't buying Trump's excuse about defending Russia at Helsinki press conference

On Tuesday, president Trump said that he meant to say 'wouldn't' rather than 'would' regarding a controversial remark he made at a press conference with president Putin of Russia.

During the press conference, which was held in Helsinki, Trump had been asked by a journalist whether he accepted president Putin's denial that the Kremlin had interfered with the 2016 presidential election.

At the press conference, president Trump had said:

President Putin just said it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be.

After making the claims, Trump faced wide-spread backlash and criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for dismissing the US intelligence community's assessment that Russia had indeed meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

After the criticism, Trump backpedalled, and issued another statement:

I would like to clarify, in a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t'.

The sentence should have been: ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’

Right...

That may be Trump's excuse, but not many people are buying it. Needless to say, Twitter wasn't really convinced.

Politicians have smelt a rat.

Many journalists are equally unconvinced.

And of course, it quickly became a meme.

Some focused on his supposed use of a double negative.

And others were simply baffled.

Clear as mud.

Nice try, Trump. Better luck next time.

​HT Huffington Post

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