How fucking hard is it to say:

"What the Russian government, led by President Putin, did to interfere in our 2016 election is unacceptable."

"Of course I believe US intelligence that Russia interfered in our election and have told President Putin that that is unacceptable. However, based on our great conversations started today, I also believe there are many good things for the world that Russia and the US can do by working together...."

It's not like he failed at some impossibly difficult task yesterday! All he had to do was stick to some script like the above that I'm sure his aides had all laid out for him.

Instead, he stood up there next to Putin, spoke and acted as though the US and Russia are equals, refused to even acknowledge that Russia has done bad things in the world (including in the US), and said that he believes the word of Putin over a number of US government institutions.

And any excuse of him not wanting to say anything bad to/about Putin in the interest of having good relations with Russia is bullshit when compared to just a few days earlier when he beat up Merkel and insulted May - two of our top allies - while maintaining that we have such great relationships with them. He has clearly shown that he can be hard on allies while also insisting on having strong ties to them.

There is very little in life that we normal folk get 2nd chances to re-do, and the stakes on that are so much higher for the President. His words and actions matter, all the time.

Because his words and actions yesterday 100% reinforce what he has said for a year and a half, and the fact that he lies so frequently that he has no credibility, most likely any attempt at a walk-back today would not have been seen as believable. But that's on Trump for lying all the time and creating his own lack of credibility, not on librulz for wanting to "get Trump."

I admit that the would/wouldn't take was a pretty creative one, if ineffective. Of course, the "could be other people also" completely blew up the entire thing.