Trump says he wants to work with Russia on cyber security and protecting US elections

President Donald Trump vowed Sunday to “move forward in working constructively with Russia,” including forming a “cyber security unit” between the two countries, after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied any involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

The two sides agreed to create what Trump described in a tweet as “an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to ensure that “election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.”

Trump’s pledge to partner with Putin in combatting cyber security drew swift and stern denunciations from both Democratic and Republican officials, who described the U.S. president as dangerously naive for trusting his Russian counterpart.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was among critics of the task force on Twitter and Sunday morning news shows.

“It’s not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty close,” Graham said.

Another Senate Republican, Marco Rubio of Florida, said on Twitter that “partnering with Putin on a ‘Cyber Security Unit’ is akin to partnering with Assad on a ‘Chemical Weapons Unit.’ ” Rubio was referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own citizens.”

Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter equated the move to “like the guy who robbed your house proposing a working group on burglary.”

And Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said that expecting Russia to be a credible partner in any cybersecurity initiative “would be dangerously naive for this country.”

“If that’s our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow,” he said.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., wrote in a series of tweets Sunday morning that Trump was “glossing over” Russia’s behavior in Ukraine and Syria and its cyber aggression.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, however, defended the move, arguing that working with Russia on cybersecurity “doesn’t mean we ever trust Russia. We can’t trust Russia and we won’t ever trust Russia. But you keep those that you don’t trust closer so that you can always keep an eye on ‘em and keep them in check.”

Trump also tweeted Sunday that sanctions against Russia were not discussed at his meeting with Putin, seemingly contradicting comments made by Tillerson in Germany. Tillerson told reporters that the president had taken “note of actions that have been discussed by the Congress” in the meeting. Congress has been pushing to increase sanctions on Russia and make them harder for Trump to lift.

Haley and Schiff spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Graham on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded definitively that Russian authorities tried to influence the election in Trump’s favor with illegal hacking and propaganda and other activities. But Trump’s public comments on the matter have been far less definitive, varying widely from tepid acknowledgment to outright doubt about Russia’s role.

Trump did not say whether he accepted Putin’s denial, stating only, “I’ve already given my opinion.” Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov both have said that Trump believed Putin’s assurances that Russia did not interfere in the election.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus disputed Putin and Lavrov’s accounts. “It’s not true,” Priebus, who did not attend the Trump-Putin meeting, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president absolutely did not believe the denial of President Putin.”

Under questioning from Fox host Chris Wallace, Preibus showed varying degrees of certainty about whether Trump believes Russia meddled in the election.

“He said they probably meddled in the election. They did meddle in the election,” Priebus said, seeming to grow more certain. But, then, Priebus seemed to back off: “Yes, he believes that Russia probably committed all of these acts that we’ve been told of. But he also believes that other countries also participated in this activity.”

Trump’s Sunday morning statements came in a defiant series of tweets he issued from the White House, to which he returned late Saturday following a three-day visit to Hamburg, where he met with Putin and other world leaders on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit.

In his tweets, Trump repeated his false accusation that President Barack Obama did “NOTHING” after first learning of Russia’s role in hacking Democratic email servers to influence the outcome of the election. He also chided the news media, among other statements.

John Brennan, who served as CIA director under Obama and ran the agency’s response to Russia’s election interference, chastised Trump on Sunday for repeatedly casting doubt about the conclusions of the intelligence community, including at a news conference last week in Poland.

“I seriously question whether or not Mr. Putin heard from Mr. Trump what he needed to about the assault on our democratic institutions,” Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Brennan added of Trump, “He said it’s an ‘honor’ to meet President Putin. An honor to meet the individual who carried out the assault against our election? To me, it was a dishonorable thing to say.”

Trump’s pledge to work with Putin on cyber security come as U.S. government officials told The Washington Post that Russian government hackers were behind recent intrusions into the systems of U.S. nuclear power and other energy companies.

Trump also said on Twitter Sunday that the United States would not lift sanctions on Russia “until the Ukranian & Syrian problems are solved,” a reference to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and role in the Syrian civil war.

Trump said the issue of sanctions was not discussed in his meeting Friday with Putin, apparently contradicting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in attendance and later told reporters that Trump did discuss sanctions with Putin.

Tillerson told reporters that Trump “took note” of congressional efforts to push for additional sanctions against Russia, but that he and Putin focused their discussion on “how do we move forward from here.” Tillerson added, “It’s not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed-upon resolution of that (sanctions) question between the two nations.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., wrote in a series of tweets Sunday morning that Trump was “glossing over” Russia’s behavior in Ukraine and Syria and its cyber aggression.

This story was originally published July 9, 2017 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Trump says he wants to work with Russia on cyber security and protecting US elections."