Melanie On 'The Distorting Prism Of Pure Malice' Regarding The Donald.

The behaviour of President Donald Trump following his meeting with Russia’s President Putin in Helsinki, and the reaction to what he said, illustrate two things: first, the flaws in Trump’s personality; and second the ever-more hysterical and misleading reaction and double standards (Obama’s “Russia reset”, anyone?) by a media and political class which views absolutely everything Trump says or does through a distorting prism of pure malice.

The near-universal media story following the Helsinki press conference (echoed by Democrats and even some Republicans) was that Trump had kow-towed to Putin by accepting his assertion that Russia had not interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. As a result, it has been almost universally agreed that – just as was suspected – Trump has shown he is in Putin’s pocket, that he grovelled to a tyrant who poses a terrible threat to the west, and that as a result Trump is (according to some) guilty of treason, with what he said being compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the Nazi pogrom against the Jews on Krystallnacht (yes, really).

In assessing what actually went on at Helsinki, everyone would be well advised to read the transcript of that press conference here. This gives a rather different impression from the media story about it. From this transcript, a fair-minded person would surely observe three things that stand out: Trump’s appalling carelessness with language in his often incoherent remarks; his obsession with showing there was no collusion between his election campaign and Putin’s Russia and that he won the presidency through his efforts alone; and last but definitely not least, what Putin said about issues that are rather more important for the world.

Contrary to the media’s claims, Trump never actually answered the repeated questions about alleged Russian interference in the presidential campaign. Instead he was intent only upon maintaining that there was no collusion between his own campaign and Russia, and that Russia played no part in affecting the outcome of the election which he he won through his own efforts alone.

Here are the relevant passages.

“REPORTER, JEFF MASON, REUTERS: Thank you. Mr. President, you tweeted this morning that it’s U.S. foolishness, stupidity, and the Mueller probe that is responsible for the decline in U.S. relations with Russia. Do you hold Russia at all accountable or anything in particular? And if so, what would you what would you consider them that they are responsible for?

TRUMP: Yes I do. I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago, a long time frankly before I got to office. And I think we’re all to blame.

I think that the United States now has stepped forward, along with Russia, and we’re getting together and we have a chance to do some great things, whether it’s nuclear proliferation in terms of stopping, have to do it, ultimately that’s probably the most important thing that we can be working on.

But I do feel that we have both made some mistakes. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart, it’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know virtually none of it related to the campaign. And they’re gonna have to try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the campaign. That was a clean campaign. I beat Hillary Clinton easily and frankly we beat her.

And I’m not even saying from the standpoint…we won that race. And it’s a shame that there can even be a little bit of a cloud over it. People know that. People understand it. But the main thing and we discussed this also is zero collusion and it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world.We have 90 percent of nuclear power between the two countries. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous what’s going on with the probe.

REPORTER: For President Putin, if I could follow up as well. Why should Americans and why should President Trump believe your statement that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election, given the evidence that U.S. intelligence agencies have provided? And will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a U.S. grand jury?

TRUMP: Well, I’m going to let the president answer the second part of that question. But, as you know, the whole concept of that came up perhaps a little bit before but it came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election, which frankly, they should have been able to win because the electoral college is much more advantageous for Democrats, as you know, than it is to Republicans. We won the Electoral College by a lot. 306 to 223, I believe.

And that was a well fought, that was a well fought battle. We did a great job. And frankly, I’m going to let the president speak to the second part of your question. But just to say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn’t know the president. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign and every time you hear all of these you know 12 and 14 – stuff that has nothing to do and frankly they admit – these are not people involved in the campaign.

But to the average reader out there, they’re saying well maybe that does. It doesn’t. And even the people involved, some perhaps told mis-stories or in one case the FBI said there was no lie. There was no lie. Somebody else said there was. We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president. Thank you.”

So Trump said there was no collusion with Putin. Putin said there was no collusion with Trump. Trump has been saying this day in, day out. So nothing new here at all, and the fact that Putin said the same thing does not make it any more notable.

The same question of Russian interference was put again. And again, neither Trump nor Putin answered it directly but focused on one particular aspect –this time the claim that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Melanie Phillips.