The Latest: Trump defends Putin summit, vows 'big results'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on continuing reaction to President Donald Trump's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin. (all times local):

6:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump says on Twitter that Russia has pledged to help in high-stakes negotiations with North Korea, but he's giving no details on how and when that might lead to removal of the North's nuclear armaments.

Trump tweeted early Wednesday: "Russia has agreed to help with North Korea, where relationships with us are very good and the process is moving along."

Trump is defending his meeting with Russia President Vladimir Putin and a press conference in which he said the U.S. had been "foolish" and doubted U.S. intelligence that found Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

Under pressure from his own party, Trump walked back his comments on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he tweeted that he and Putin got along well, which "truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match."

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6:12 a.m.

President Donald Trump is talking up his Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, seemingly congratulating himself and promising "big results."

Taking to Twitter early on Wednesday Trump wrote, "so many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki."

He made no mention of having walked back comments at his summit press conference that suggested a lack of confidence in U.S. intelligence agencies.

Trump says he and Putin discussed many important subjects.

"We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match," he wrote.

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12:22 a.m.

President Donald Trump is defending his Helsinki summit with Russia's president as a "great success" and blaming what he calls "the Fake News Media" for contrary views.

The president already backed off his earlier remarks undermining U.S. intelligence agencies, saying Tuesday he had simply misspoken a day earlier when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

Trump sought to end 27 hours of bipartisan recrimination by delivering a rare admission of error. But that didn't explain why Trump waited so long to correct his remarks. And the scripted cleanup pertained only to the least defensible of his comments.

The president had tweeted a half-dozen times and sat for two television interviews since the Putin news conference before citing the error.

(This story has not been edited by economictimes.com and is auto–generated from a syndicated feed we subscribe to.)
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