President Donald Trump on Monday said he would agree not to use information stolen from a foreign adversary on the campaign trail because he wouldn’t “need it,” given how the Democratic primary is shaping up.
“I don’t need it,” the president said, seated in the Oval Office next to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary. “All I need is the opponents I’m looking at. I’m liking what I see.”
Trump’s comment comes amid continued partisan battles over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a shadow that continues to loom over Washington almost a month after a redacted version of the special counsel’s 448-page report was released to the public.
Mueller wrote that there was no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, though he also documented “numerous links” between the two and argued that the president’s campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
The Trump campaign would not respond to multiple inquiries from POLITICO about whether it has implemented a policy about foreign interference in elections. Several Democrats hoping to challenge the president’s hold on the White House in 2020, however, have publicly pledged not to knowingly use stolen or hacked information.
FBI Director Chris Wray said last week that foreign agents making efforts to contact any 2020 presidential campaigns would be “something the FBI would want to know about.” Intelligence officials have warned that Russia plans to interfere in the next U.S. election cycle.
Trump and his supporters have repeatedly seized the Mueller report as a victory, rallying around the claim that it found “no collusion.” In response to a reporter Monday, Trump said he never did use information stolen from a foreign agent in his 2016 campaign.
“That’s what the Mueller report was all about,” he said, adding that he “would certainly agree” to not use information from foreign countries in the future.
Democrats, by contrast, have launched a slew of investigations into the president after the report’s publications. The White House has fervently fought off and condemned the probes as a partisan ploy.
“All they’re doing is trying to win an election in 2020,” Trump said on Monday. “And I think we’re in very good shape.”
Although Trump has publicly displayed confidence about his odds heading into the 2020 general election, aides to the president say he has expressed concerns about former Vice President Joe Biden’s candidacy.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
