President Trump is in Poland Thursday morning, meeting with the leader of a key NATO ally and discussing essential geostrategic imperatives. Maybe in private, anyway. In public, he's still casting doubt on the intelligence community's finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election nearly nine months after the fact. In a press conference today, Trump repeatedly equivocated about whether he's accepted Russia's role in the election meddling, saying "I think it was Russia, but it could've been other people and other countries."

Then came the rant:

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Watch: Trump is asked if he believes Russia interfered in our election, instead attacks Obama and the media. https://t.co/IrfviRPwru — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 6, 2017

"When Barack Obama found out about this," Trump continued (so it was Russia?), and then, seemingly checking himself: "in terms of, if it were Russia." He went on to say Obama "did nothing about it," and added that "they say he choked." That's language we've used at Esquire, although that referred to Obama's failure to inform the American people, publicly and before the election, of Russia's efforts to meddle in it to benefit Trump. Behind the scenes, Obama organized a response, including a move from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to secure state voting systems from Russian attack, that was often hampered by Republican leaders.

Many would say Obama didn't do enough, but that also has nothing to do with the fact his successor doubts there was a real problem to address at all. And somehow, he also says Obama didn't do enough. "Nobody really knows" what happened, Trump continued, citing—as he has since December—the run-up to the Iraq War and the Bush administration's justification for invasion based on "weapons of mass destruction." That did involve faulty intelligence, but it was just as much the administration's manipulation of the intelligence that led to baseless conclusions.

So, to recap: It could have been Russia, but it also could've been other people, and Obama didn't do anything about Russia, but nobody really knows if it was Russia because WMDs.

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It's great that the president has such a refined view of things considering he's about to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom U.S. intelligence found ordered the influence campaign directly. Trump has long enjoyed a bizarre public relationship with Putin: He has gone back and forth, over and over, on whether he's met Putin or knows him, but one thing has remained constant: While he constantly criticizes the leaders of U.S. allies, he has never had a bad word about Putin—or many other authoritarian leaders, for that matter—in public.

This has led to some concern about what might go down in the meeting, which will take place at this week's G20 summit in Germany. Some intelligence officials pushed for the meeting to be an informal "pull aside," but Trump has insisted on a formal bilateral meeting and tasked his staff with coming up with some "deliverables" for him to present to the Russian president. According to The Guardian, those could include an offer to return two diplomatic compounds President Obama ordered the Russians to vacate in retaliation for 2016 interference. It's still unclear what, if anything, Trump would seek in return for those concessions. But there's also concern that Trump will be characteristically eager-to-please when he gets in the room with someone—in this case, with a former KGB agent—and that he might continue his spotty track record on accidental top-secret intelligence-sharing in meetings with Russian officials.

Never fear, though: Since "the president often doesn't read the usual briefing books and relies on in-person briefings," The Los Angeles Times reports, "aides also have written a list of tweet-length sentences that summarize the main points Trump could bring up with Putin." The Times adds that no one, including, by his own admission, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, knows what the president and Putin will discuss.

All this got the attention of California Democrat and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff:

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.@POTUS must raise Russia's interference in our election with Putin, or the Kremlin will conclude he is too weak to confront them directly. — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 5, 2017

In addition to all that Russia stuff, though, the president had plenty else to share. Take this seamless transition from a rant about Fake News CNN in front of the international media—which included a pause to ask Polish President Andrzej Duda if he has the same problem—to a very detail-oriented account of the North Korean problem:

He made millions for NBC with The Apprentice and he has a secret severe plan for North Korea. This guy can do it all. Plus, he finally reaffirmed the basic premise that has undergirded NATO for the last half-century. And he even knows his history:

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Trump on Hitler and Stalin invading Poland: “That’s trouble. That’s tough.” pic.twitter.com/prE4uOhVnV — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 6, 2017

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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