The President didn't choose Putin over what the Intelligence agents are saying.
That is how the press is characterizing his statement, but that is literally not what he said.
Quote:
Question Thank you. A question for each President. President Trump, you first. Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. What -- who -- my first question for you, sir, is, who do you believe?
My second question is, would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin -- would you denounce what happened in 2016? And would you warn him to never do it again?
TRUMP: So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven't they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months, and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know, where is the server? And what is the server saying?
With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me -- Dan Coats came to me and some others -- they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server. But I have -- I have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don't think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They're missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton's emails? Thirty-three thousand emails gone -- just gone. I think, in Russia, they wouldn't be gone so easily. I think it's a disgrace that we can't get Hillary Clinton's 33,000 emails.
So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer. Okay? Thank you.
Every time he talked about it he said something like "I believe my guys but Putin says they didn't do it." The news is saying that he said "I believe Putin and not my guys." He isn't saying that he believes Putin at all. He is just not calling a foreign head of state a liar in a joint press conference.
What the hell else is Trump supposed to say in that circumstance? Is he supposed to say "Yeah, Putin says he didn't do it. We know he is lying and I know we are here trying to find ways for our countries to NOT eventually descend into WW3, but forget that. I'm going to denounce him right now. Mr. Putin, you sir, are a liar!"
It's asinine. Are the anti-trump people actually taking the position that the proper action would have been to say in a public press conference "Putin, we know you released information that was damaging to Hillary Clinton. I denounce those actions and tell you that should never happen again!" Do they not think about what the response to that would have been? Do they think the conference would have continued on in any capacity after that?
We have already expelled 50+ Russian diplomats. We are already levying heavy sanctions on Russia. We are already providing arms and support to their enemies. We already killed a bunch of their guys in Syria. Do they really want us to do MORE?
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." ~ John Adams