President Donald Trump says expectations are low ahead of a highly anticipated Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an interview with “CBS Evening News,” days after the Justice Department announced indictments against 12 Russians over alleged interference in the 2016 election.
‘I go in with low expectations ...I’m not going with high expectations.’ Donald TrumpTrump said he “hadn’t thought” about asking for the extradition of the indicted Russian intelligence officers during his scheduled one-on-one meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. “Well, I might,” Trump said an interview with CBS’s Jeff Glor at the president’s golf course in Scotland. “I’ll be asking about it.”
The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Russia.
Trump continued to blame the Obama administration for not doing enough to prevent Russian election meddling, tweeting Saturday that Obama could have stepped in.
At the NATO summit in Brussels last week, the president referred to Putin as a “competitor” and said in a joint news conference with Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May that he would bring up the topic of Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
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When pressed about the agenda, Trump said, “I’ll let you know after the meeting,” but that “nothing bad” would happen.
“I think it’s a good thing to meet,” he said. “I do believe in meetings. I believe that having a meeting with Chairman Kim was a good thing. I think having meetings with the president of China was a very good thing. I believe it’s really good. So having meetings with Russia, China, North Korea, I believe in it. Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out.”
See also: President softens stance toward May, trade pact with U.K.
