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So far Donald Trump has followed the same script, in the wake of the Helsinki disaster, he has followed on every previous occasion, after he has said or done something unusually appalling: after insulting the grieving parents of a fallen war hero, or bragging of his ability to “grab them by the pussy,” or blaming “both sides” for the death of a protester at a Nazi march, or any of dozens, perhaps hundreds of other examples.

First, in the immediate shocked aftermath, deny you said it, or if you cannot deny you said it deny you meant it. Then, when the shock has died down a little, double down on the original sentiment. Sometimes the order is reversed: double down, then deny. And sometimes, as in the present case, the two are combined, the rare and difficult simultaneous reaffirmation-disavowal.

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Thus Trump’s ludicrous day-after explanation — that he had not meant to say, at Helsinki, that he didn’t see “any reason why it would be” Russia that interfered in the 2016 election, but rather that he didn’t see any reason why it would not be, and that he accepted the views of every U.S. intelligence agency on this point, rather than, as he had suggested throughout that infamous press conference, Vladimir Putin’s — was immediately, almost involuntarily followed by his usual obfuscatory credo: that “it could be other people, also.”