ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 13 June 2019
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Pace, AP Washington Bureau Chief:
"One of the questions that shadowed President Trump from the start of his tenure has been this question about whether he got or sought information from the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. And so that makes it even more stunning that he would come out and say that he would generally be OK with a foreign government giving him dirt on a political opponent. This is something that really is pretty eyebrow raising because it goes to the question of foreign interference in American elections. Is it appropriate for a foreign government to work essentially with a president or presidential candidate to try to sway the outcome of an election? And that could just be as simple as a foreign government knowing something maybe through their own intelligence efforts, through sources that they have, that could be damaging to an American candidate. And where is the line there? The president seems to think that there really isn't a line that it's that it's fair game for him to interact with a foreign government and use something that they might they might have on his political opponent in the course of an election."
US POOL
ARCHIVE - Hamburg, Germany - 7 July 2017
2. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting at the G-20 Summit
POOL
Joint Base Andrews, Maryland - 11 June 2019
3. President Trump walking across tarmac at Joint Base Andrews toward Air Force One
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE - Columbus Ohio - 2 October 2012
4. Various shots of people voting early for the 2012 presidential race
POOL
Joint Base Andrews, Maryland - 11 June 2019
5. President Trump boarding Air Force One
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 13 June 2019
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Pace, AP Washington Bureau Chief:
"I think Trump's comments really underscore why the Trump campaign was so comfortable taking this meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer. They didn't see anything wrong with the idea of a Russian lawyer coming into Trump Tower and saying I've got some political dirt on your opponent. We know that that meeting didn't actually result in much but it it didn't factor into their thinking at the time that this is something that could be problematic, that we should potentially alert the FBI the government to."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - Recent
7. Various shots of Trump Tower
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamburg, Germany - 7 July 2017
8. STILL photo of President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting at the G-20 Summit
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 13 June 2019
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Pace, AP Washington Bureau Chief:
"We don't know, you know, every interaction that presidents certainly have had with foreign governments. It's hard to imagine the situation has never come up before but it's almost the fact that Trump is embracing it so willingly that is really the distinguishing factor here."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 11 June 2019
10. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaking in Capitol alongside Republican Senate leaders
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Council Bluffs, Iowa - 11 June 2019
11. President Trump walks on stage to speak in Iowa
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - 13 June 2019
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Pace, AP Washington Bureau Chief:
"Republican reaction will be really interesting here. They've been muted so far about this. But certainly one of the things that the Democrats say, and this is true, is that right now we're dealing with a situation where you've had a foreign government, Russia, that was trying to help a Republican president. We have a Republican president in office right now if he's going to be getting information from governments, it's again to help him. But that doesn't necessarily mean that's the only way that this dynamic could go. It's certainly very plausible that you could have a foreign government that wants to help a Democrat. So Democrats are trying to encourage Republicans to think about this not through the prism of Trump and Trump's re-election prospects but broadly. You know, do we want foreign governments to be playing a role in trying to sway American elections? We just haven't heard a lot of that from Republicans lately."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE - Columbus, Ohio - 2 October 2012
13. Shot of a flag flying outside a voting precinct
14. People voting
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington, DC - Recent
15. Rack focus shot of the U.S. Capitol
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President Donald Trump's assertion that he would be open to accepting a foreign power's help in his 2020 campaign ricocheted through Washington on Thursday, with Democrats condemning it as a call for further election interference and Republicans struggling to defend his comments.
Trump seemed to dismiss the threat posed by Russia's interference in the 2016 election, one that led to sweeping indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller, and his incendiary remarks come as congressional investigations into the meddling have quickened.
Associated Press Washington bureau chief Julie Pace says the questions that arised from the Mueller probe make "it even more stunning that (Trump) would come out and say that he would generally be OK with a foreign government giving him dirt on a political opponent."
"The president seems to think that there really isn't a line that it's that it's fair game for him to interact with a foreign government and use something that they might they might have on his political opponent in the course of an election," Pace says.
Special counsel Robert Mueller painstakingly documented Russian efforts to boost Trump's campaign and undermine that of his Democratic rival.
But while Mueller's investigation didn't establish a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump's campaign, Trump repeatedly praised WikiLeaks in 2016 and at one point implored hackers to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The role of Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in organizing a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer offering negative information on Clinton was a focus of Mueller's probe of Russian meddling in the last presidential campaign.
"Trump's comments really underscore why the Trump campaign was so comfortable taking this meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer," Pace says. "They didn't see anything wrong with the idea of a Russian lawyer coming into Trump Tower and saying I've got some political dirt on your opponent."
While Democrats have been quick to condemn the president's comments, Republicans have been noticeably muted on the issue.
Pace says the Republican party "is Trump's party and there's really no way around that."
"If they break from him too significantly, too publicly on any issue really, that puts their own standing at jeopardy and there they're very cognizant of that and they're really letting that drive a lot of their decision making," she adds.