Trump Backs Putin On Election, Rips U.S. Intelligence Leaders

President Trump told journalists Saturday that he had spoken to President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of their economic meetings in Vietnam and asked him flat-out about meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. Putin answered no, Trump said, that he had done no such thing. Even during this presidency of unpredictability, that bit of news was expected. Trump had to say he asked about meddling. Putin had to deny it. Nothing remarkable here.

But then a reporter asked Trump, twice, a simple, four-word question: "Do you believe him?"

Trump's answer to the reporter, and not Putin's answer to Trump, was remarkable indeed, both to Democrats and some Republicans who took offense that the president of the United States would indicate to the world that he trusted a former K.G.B. officer more than his own intelligence agencies. The C.I.A., the National Security Agency, the F.B.I. and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have all determined that Russia meddled in the election.

“Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump said of Putin. “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”

Trump didn't stop there. He warned that the Democrats are playing a life-and-death game by refusing to leave the campaign investigation behind. If they continue to accuse Putin of wrongdoing, Russia will not help the United States deal with festering world tensions, and as a result, the president said, "people will die."

Saturday's remarks followed two weeks of steady disclosures that Trump campaign advisers had met Russians prior to the 2016 election far more than he or anybody in his circle had acknowledged — and that senior officials close to him knew about the contacts — and Trump has frequently turned up his rhetoric when faced with particularly damaging news cycles.

Still his taunts Saturday were especially striking, in part because of the incongruity of disparaging the country's former top intelligence officials in personal terms while trying to make a case that to spare the hurt feelings of Putin, who is widely believed to be overseeing massive, systematic corruption in Russia and his political opponents keep turning up murdered.

Trump made his remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Hanoi, where he unleashed a tweet storm shortly after landing Sunday morning local time, calling his critics "morons" and, for good measure, firing off a message ridiculing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as “short and fat."

On the election probe, Trump had warmed up by taking a swipe at Hillary Clinton. She is among those trying to thwart his attempts to turn Putin into an ally, he said, because she "doesn't have what it takes" to build a relationship that would lead Russia to "pull back from North Korea, or they’d pull back from Syria, or maybe pull back from Ukraine."

The president then attacked the integrity of the men who had been at the top of the country's intelligence agencies, including John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director; James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence; and James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired this year leading to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller III and his investigation of the campaign.

“I mean, give me a break — they’re political hacks,” Trump said. “You have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have Comey. Comey’s proven now to be a liar, and he’s proven to be a leaker, so you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that.”

The constant questioning is insulting to Putin, and that's not good for America, Trump said.

Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the election, decided to answer Trump on the president's own turf — Twitter.

“You know who else is insulted by it, Mr. President? The American people,” Schiff tweeted. “You believe a foreign adversary over your own intelligence agencies.

Another Democrat, Rep. Ted Lieu, was more blunt. Trump, he said, is “dumb as a rock.”

And Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement that seemed to question either Trump's allegiance or his intelligence or maybe both.

“There’s nothing ‘America First’ about taking the word of a K.G.B. colonel over that of the American intelligence community,” McCain said.

In his tweet early Sunday from Hanoi, Trump maintained that improving relations with Russia is a smart strategic move but dropped any mention of he election probe.

“When will all the haters and fools out there realize that having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. There always playing politics — bad for our country,” he wrote, likely meaning "they're."

“I want to solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism,” he added, “and Russia can greatly help!”

A bit later, Trump turned his aim on the North Korean leader with a sarcastic reply to Kim again calling "old.".

"Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me 'old,' when I would NEVER call him 'short and fat?'" Trump tweeted "Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!"

After meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Trump was asked at a joint news conference whether he thought it really was possible to be friends with Kim, The Washington Post reported.

"I believe it's possible. Strange things happen in life," Trump said. "If it did happen, it would be a good thing for North Korea, and a good thing for lots of other places and good for the world. Certainly it's something that could happen. I don't know if it will, but it would be very, very nice if it did."

Watch – Trump: Putin Believes Russia Didn't Hack The Election

Photo of President Trump in Vietnam via Minh Hoang/AP Photo