Trump Says No Country Has Helped Him Win Elections, Slams Schiff

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he doesn’t want help from any country to win re-election and accused House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of leaking news that U.S. authorities believe Russia is trying to help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic nomination.“I don’t want help from any country,” Trump said at a news conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, concluding a two-day trip to India. “And I haven’t been given help from any country.”The remarks suggested that the president still disputes official U.S. conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help secure his election. In June, he said in an interview with ABC News that he would at least listen to foreigners who claimed to have damaging information on his political opponents.Sanders, a Vermont senator, confirmed last week that American intelligence officials had briefed him in January on Russian efforts to help his campaign. He didn’t reveal the briefing until after the Washington Post reported Friday that Trump and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill had been informed of the Russian interference in the campaign.Trump suggested that Democrats led by Schiff leaked news of the briefing in order to keep Sanders from winning the party’s nomination.“I think it’s disgraceful, and I think it was leaks from the Intelligence Committee, House version, and I think that they leaked it. I think probably Schiff leaked it,” he said Tuesday, without citing any evidence for his claim.Schiff previously has denied Trump’s assertion.“Bernie is probably winning and it looks like he’s winning, and he’s got a head of steam, and they maybe don’t want him for obvious reasons,” Trump said. “So they don’t want him, so they put out a thing that Russia is backing him.”Trump has long disputed the U.S. intelligence community’s finding that Russia sought to covertly boost his campaign in 2016. “I get it, I get the game better than anybody,” he said.(Updates with Schiff tweet in seventh paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua GalluFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.