President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16.
The two have met before, at the G20 summit last year, but this will be the first extended meeting, and they will reportedly discuss a “range of national security issues.” In advance of the announcement, the president used his morning tweetstorm to tell people that Russia said the country was not involved in in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2018
The widely accepted consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies is that Russia engaged in a disinformation campaign to sway American voters.
While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Russia engaging in election interference would be on Trump’s agenda during the summit, the president, when asked in the Oval Office yesterday, said that you “never know” what happens in meetings.
In the Oval Office yesterday I asked Pres Trump if Russia's election meddling would be on his agenda for his meeting with Putin.
— Karen Travers (@karentravers) June 28, 2018
His answer: "You never know about meetings, what happens. Right? But I think a lot of good things can come with meetings with people." https://t.co/MlUYznSS8C
As news of the summit broke, and with the nearly simultaneous and curiously timed proclamation by Trump that Russia did not mettle in the election, Twitter had one question: Would Trump and Putin talk about the compromising information that possibly exists of the president.
You know, the pee tape?
https://twitter.com/XtasyMadeMeGay/status/1012314698564427781
https://twitter.com/SprechenTruth/status/1012306619231801344
Pee Tape to be released the same day. https://t.co/BjLb7w1KSH
— Warner Crocker (@WarnerCrocker) June 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/YangXiao5/status/1012314016902008833
@TheRichieWilson @TomArnold this were trump negotiates final cost of the #peetape https://t.co/lMf5MzhomK
— mike velazquez (@velie) June 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/bob_savas/status/1012312018106413058
https://twitter.com/The_Angry_Wog/status/1012311672281657348
Pee tape is sooooo real https://t.co/SYAityMUAX
— Ben Yelin (@byelin) June 28, 2018
This summit will confirm the pee tape is real and that Putin personally owns Trump who will bend the knee in front of the entire world.
— 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝒾𝑒 (@Cuprikorn66) June 28, 2018
Literally every news organization that tweeted about the summit got a pee tape tweet in response. What a world.