After his one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin is confident that he has convinced his U.S. counterpart that Russia was not behind the election interference last year. During his televised speech, the Russian leader revealed that the POTUS had asked him questions about the election meddling which has been the subject of several White House investigations for the past couple of months. “He asked questions, I replied. It seemed to me that he was satisfied with the answers," he said.
Trump and Putin's confrontation on election meddling
The Russian leader said he provided the U.S. leader with detailed answers and even recalled his discussions with the previous administration's representatives. Putin, however, refused to disclose the details of what they have talked about and thought that it would be better to personally hear Trump's opinion over the issue after their meeting.
Rex Tillerson said the POTUS reportedly expressed his desire to put an end to this controversy. The U.S. state secretary added Trump and Putin "connected very quickly" which he deemed an indication of good chemistry between the two leaders.
"The [U.S.] President pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement," he added as per CNN.
"President Putin denied such involvement, as I think he has in the past."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added Trump appeared to have accepted Putin's version of the interference issue during their bilateral talks at the G20 summit.
Did Trump believe Putin's explanation?
Tillerson and Lavrov were present when the meeting of the two leaders occurred.
But contrary to their claims that the U.S. president was okay with his counterpart's denial, Reince Priebus insisted that the POTUS still believes Russia meddled during the 2016 presidential election.
"He's said they probably meddled in the election. They did meddle in the election," Priebus told Fox News in an interview. "The one thing that he also says -- which drives the media crazy, but it's an absolute fact -- is that others have as well."
The White House chief of staff specifically mentioned China and North Korea's alleged meddling in U.S.
elections over the past years.
James Clapper, however, told CNN that they found no evidence proving that other countries interfered during the elections. "We saw no evidence whatsoever that it was anyone involved in this other than the Russians," the former Director of National Intelligence said.
