President Trump began his day on Twitter Wednesday defending his meeting and press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
One tweet said: "So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki..."
This comes less than a day after the president read a statement walking back statements he made in Helsinki, saying he intended to say that he does accept the intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in our elections.
Elissa Slotkin is a Democrat running for the 8th Congressional District seat currently held by Mike Bishop. She has also held top positions at the Pentagon, including the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.
She joined Stateside’s Cynthia Canty to provide an intelligence community perspective on the week's events.
Slotkin said she never thought she would see a U.S. president taking the side of Vladimir Putin instead of his own intelligence agencies.
“I think what concerns me more than the rhetoric is how all of this type of thing coming from the commander in chief emboldens the very organizations that meddled in our elections in 2016,” Slotkin said.
Listen above for the full conversation.
This post was written by Stateside production assistant Sophie Sherry.
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