The White House is struggling to contain a political outcry and confusion over US President Donald Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, denying Trump ever meant to say that Moscow was no longer targeting the US.
Trump, facing uproar over his failure to confront Putin over Russia's 2016 US election meddling, adopted his usual defiant posture two days after their Helsinki summit and called his critics deranged.
Asked by a journalist before a morning Cabinet meeting whether Russia was still targeting the country, Trump shook his head and said, "No."
At a later briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders claimed the president was saying "no" to answering questions, not to the question itself.
US intelligence officials have said Russia's efforts to undermine elections are continuing and now target the November 6 congressional races. Sanders said Trump believes the threat from Russia to undermine those elections still exists.
Asked later in an interview with CBS News whether he held Putin personally responsible for meddling in the 2016 election, Trump said he did.
"Well, I would, because he's in charge of the country. Just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country," he said.
The US president said that in his talks with Putin, he was "very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling, we can't have any of that."
But he also appeared to question whether such statements would have an impact on Russia, saying "We're also living in a grown-up world."
Sanders explanation of Trump's "No" was the second time since Monday's summit that Trump and the White House have blamed a misstatement or misunderstanding for the furore over Russia.
Trump stunned the world on Monday by shying away from criticising the Russian leader for Moscow's actions to undermine the election, sparking bipartisan fury at home and prompting calls by some US lawmakers for tougher sanctions and other actions to punish Russia.
Critics have accused Trump of siding with Russia over his own country by failing to criticise Moscow for what US intelligence agencies last year described as Russia's election interference.
Putin has denied the allegations.
In a series of early morning Twitter posts, the Republican president said the summit would eventually produce "big results" and accused his critics of "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Trump also said he elicited a promise from Putin during their meeting to help negotiations with North Korea, but did not say how.
Trump met North Korea's Kim Jong Un in June and has since received a letter from Kim expressing hope for "practical actions" in the future as the US seeks Pyongyang's denuclearisation.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Trump needed to wake up to Russia's efforts to interfere in American elections.
"We won't be able, as a nation, to fight back against foreign interference in our elections if the Commander in Chief doesn't even acknowledge that it's a real problem," Schumer said in a statement.
