President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Russia had “no impact on our vote” in the 2016 presidential contest and vowed to combat any attempts to meddling in the 2018 midterms.
“The Russians had no impact on our vote. Certainly there was meddling. Probably there was meddling from other countries,” Trump said during a news conference alongside Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
Asked whether he was concerned Russia could have an effect on the midterms, Trump insisted the US would prevent any election interference efforts.
“No, because we’ll counteract whatever they do,” Trump said.
He encouraged states to include an analog backup to avoid attempts to hack electronic systems.
“You have to be very vigilant. One of the things we’re learning, it’s always good to have a paper back-up system of voting. Called paper. Not highly complex computers. Paper,” he said.
