Donald Trump provides more information about that closed door meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Paris to take part in Bastille Day celebrations, Mr. Trump offered his first extended account of a dramatic closed-door meeting he held with Mr. Putin last week in Hamburg, Germany. 

“I said to him, ‘Were you involved in the meddling with the election?’” Mr. Trump recalled. “He said, ‘Absolutely not. I was not involved.’ He was very strong on it. I then said to him, in a totally different way, ‘Were you involved with the meddling?’ He said, ‘I was not — absolutely not.’”

Putin then changed the subject to Syria, and Trump let him because, as he says, “What do you do? End up in a fistfight?”

Yeah, that would have shown he had at least some balls.

Then there was this later on: 

The president defended Mr. Putin when a reporter asked him to respond to Mr. Putin’s assertion, at a news conference, that Mr. Trump had accepted his denial of Russian involvement.“He didn’t say that,” Mr. Trump said. “No. He said, ‘I think he accepted it, but you’ll have to ask him.’ That’s a big difference.” 

Mr. Trump again raised the prospect that countries other than Russia could have carried out the hacking, although four United States intelligence agencies concluded that Russia was solely responsible. 

China and North Korea are also skilled at hacking, he said, pointing out that the North Koreans had infiltrated the internal computers of Sony Pictures. “I’m not saying it wasn’t Russia,” Mr. Trump said. “What I’m saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is.”

No he isn't definitively saying it wasn't Russia, he is just raising doubts that it was Russia.

Which certainly sounds like he agrees with Putin's denial to me.

Trump also offered this rather insane attempt at misdirection as well: 

"The next time I’m with Putin, I’m going to ask him: who were you really for? Because I can’t believe that he would have been for me," Mr Trump said. 

He argued that Hillary Clinton would have cut investment in domestic energy sources an increased US dependence on foreign oil, saying: “That’s great for Russia.”

So his argument is that Russia hacked the DNC and John Podesta in order to HELP Hillary Clinton get elected?

Perhaps he forgot that this was a line in the email that his son received in that lead up to the notorious meeting with the Russians: 

"The Crown prosecutor of Russia ... offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father," said the June 3, 2016, email to Trump Jr. from publicist Rob Goldstone. 

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," according to the email posted by Trump Jr. on Twitter. 

Oh yeah, the Russians were working REAL hard to help get Hillary elected all right.

By the way, do you think THIS guy might have been willing to end up in a fistfight with Vladimir Putin to protect our election integrity?