Asked if Russia was still targeting the U.S. with cyberattacks, President Donald Trump shook his head and said, “No.” The director of national intelligence has said the opposite. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Trump newly undercuts top U.S. intelligence chief on Russia

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the Russian government is no longer trying to meddle in U.S. elections, contradicting his director of national intelligence, who has said that Kremlin-ordered attacks are ongoing.

In response to a shouted question from a reporter as to whether Russia was still targeting the U.S., Trump shook his head and said “no.” He quickly followed with a brief monologue arguing that his administration has been tougher on Russia than any of its predecessors and that “President Putin knows that better than anybody, certainly better than the media.”


At her Wednesday press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the president had said Russia is no longer attacking the U.S. but that he instead had been saying "no" to taking additional questions from reporters. She said the White House believes the threat of Russian election interference remains.

"The president said thank you very much and was saying 'no' to answering questions," Sanders said, despite the fact that Trump kept on talking to reporters after the exchange. "The president and his administration are working very hard to make sure that Russia is unable to meddle in our elections as they have done in the past and as we have stated."

Pressed by MSNBC reporter Hallie Jackson on the president's earlier exchange with reporters, Sanders said that she had spoken to the president about his remark and that he was not answering a reporter's question when he said "no." The press secretary insisted that she was not walking back the president's comments, telling reporters, “I’m interpreting what the president said. I’m not reversing it."

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The president’s assertion that Russia’s is no longer launching attacks against the U.S. contradicts remarks from Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who said last month that “it is 2018, and we continue to see Russian targeting of American society in ways that could affect our midterm elections.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was the second time in as many days that the White House has sought to argue that the president either did not say or did not mean something that he was clearly captured on video saying. Trump has come under withering criticism over the last 48 hours over his remarks at a bilateral press conference on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, where the U.S. president said “I don’t see any reason” why Russia "would" be behind 2016 cyberattacks intended to impact that year’s U.S. presidential election.

Trump’s willingness to accept Putin’s denial that the Kremlin had been involved over the assessment of his own intelligence agencies prompted a tidal wave of rebukes, which in turn pushed Trump to take a rare step — admitting a mistake — on Tuesday when he told reporters that he had meant to say that he saw no reason why Russia “wouldn’t” have been behind the 2016 attacks.

It's also not the first time that Trump has directly undercut Coats in recent days.

In an interview with CBS News on Saturday, Trump said he doesn't know if he agrees with a warning from Coats that the U.S. digital infrastructure is vulnerable to a large-scale attack.

"Well, I — I don't know if I agree with that. I'd have to look. But I have a lot of respect for Dan," Trump said. "And that's where he is, and that's what he does. Again, we're working on it very hard. We're upgrading things at a very rapid pace."

Coats has not been silent as Trump has undermined his statements. On Monday, after Trump publicly sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies on Russia's election meddling, Coats issued a blunt statement backing the intelligence community.

"The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the president and policymakers," said Coats, who took over as U.S. director of national intelligence in March 2017. "We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security."

Coats also has had a rocky history with Trump. It was reported in June 2017 that Coats had told associates that Trump asked him if he could help get then-FBI Director James Comey to back off the agency's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Coats reportedly decided that such an action would be inappropriate.