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Comment by notatoad | Hacker News Reader

i'm not quite sure what you mean by "tactically", but this is significantly different because it's not the administration. Trump has been insisting that any suggestion of russian election interference is a hoax, and now the justice department is indicting russians for interfering in the election.

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Trump has been insisting that they had no collaboration with Russians; not that Russians did not interfere with the election.

As he traveled to Hanoi, the second-to-last stop of his Asia trip, Mr. Trump told reporters that Putin "said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did."

"Every time he sees me, he said: 'I didn't do that.' And I believe -- I really believe -- that when he tells me that, he means it," Mr. Trump said, calling the accusation an "artificial barrier" erected by Democrats.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-reiterates-he-believes-ru...

Actually, he has claimed they didn't interfere many times ... for example: "President Trump said on Saturday that he believed President Vladimir V. Putin was sincere in his denials of interference in the 2016 presidential elections" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/world/asia/trump-putin-el...

Incorrect. See the only place Trump speaks:

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/843865267008655360?ref_src=...

Trump has claimed many times that we "don't know" whether it was Russia, and that he believes Putin, who says it wasn't Russia. More recently the message has been that if Russia did interfere then the campaign was not involved/aware.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/politics/trump-unconvinced-ru...

He continually undercuts and minimizes any interference. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/13/politics/trump-unconvince...

11 Times Trump Called the Russia Probe a "Hoax":

http://abcnews.go.com/US/11-times-president-trump-called-rus...

1) https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/trump-is-back-to-cal...

2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-...

Direct dispute that there was any at all:

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/81645280702484070...

  The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/11/trum...

  "I think that he [Putin] is very, very strong in the fact that he didn't do it," Trump said hours before his news conference, going on to trash Brennan, former National Intelligence director James Clapper and ex-FBI director James Comey, all of whom served during the Barack Obama administration.

Indirect disparaging whereby it's implied as a wink wink nudge nudge to his base but he gave himself wiggle room to say the media reporting was inaccurate and not what he meant after all:

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/83591651194452377...

  Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!

Could be that he just means collusion but phrased broadly enough that it implies all talk including Russian meddling.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/us/politics/trump-russia-...

  Mr. Trump repeated his familiar refrain that “it could” have been Russia or other countries that interfered in the election, and then appeared to suggest that there was hardly an intelligence community consensus on the matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/06/politics/trump-russia-intelli...

  "While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations, including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election, including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines," Trump said in a statement after the meeting.

Casting doubt on intelligence agencies that concluded collectively that it was indeed the Russians & not anyone else & that Putin ordered it. Of course he can spin that however he wants since the statement itself is intentionally ambiguous.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/11/he...

Too many quotes from this direct transcript whereby Trump is directly & indirectly implying there was no Russia hacking & if there way it was without Putin's knowledge. You know, like how the Russian army collectively decided to take a vacation in Crimea.

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