"There’s no question Russia was the principal violator in 2016," White House national security adviser John Bolton said. Bolton: No disconnect between Trump and administration on election meddling

White House national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday rejected the idea there is a disconnect between President Donald Trump and his senior national leaders about Russian attempts to undermine the United States, calling it a media "narrative."

The president has come under sharp criticism in recent days for not standing alongside several top security and intelligence chiefs when they appeared in the White House briefing room last week and accused Moscow of ongoing influence operations.


"The president knew exactly what was going to be said at that press briefing on Thursday," Bolton said on "Fox News Sunday."

He said Trump "directed it to be held" and that it was the result of a recent National Security Council meeting on the issue of election meddling.

The president felt it was important to "hear directly from the people responsible for election security at the federal level," according to Bolton.

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Since the briefing, Trump has appeared at two campaign rallies at which he again cast doubt on Moscow's involvement.

“It's a lot of people. We have to stop it. We have to stop meddling and stop everybody from attacking us," Trump said Saturday night at an event in Ohio. "But there are a lot. Russia is there, China is there. We are doing well with North Korea, but they're probably there.”

He had called the idea of outside interference a "Russian hoax."

Bolton said the hoax is really "the idea that the Trump campaign was a beneficiary of a concerted effort together with the Russians to affect the 2016 election."

He backed the president's comments, saying that while "there’s no question Russia was the principal violator in 2016," that “does not exclude the potential for others to meddle."

Bolton also stood by the administration line that Trump "misspoke" when, during his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month, the president seemed to side with the foreign leader over the findings of the U.S. intelligence community.

"You can’t read any motive into what he did other than his deep concern about Russian election meddling other than to point to" Thursday's briefing, Bolton said.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said the president needs to be “straightforward" about how severe the Russian threat is to American elections.

“For years, we have watched Russian interference,” said Royce, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

