President Trump this weekend promoted an "impenetrable Cyber Security unit" with Russia before backtracking on the idea about 12 hours later.
"Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded...and safe," Trump tweeted around 8 a.m. on Sunday morning.
About 12 hours later, amidst backlash from both parties, Trump tweeted: "The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn't mean I think it can happen. It can't-but a ceasefire can,& did!" referring to Syria.
News of the US working with Russia on cyber-security issues first emerged from the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During that meeting, the two "acknowledged the challenges of cyber threats and interference in the democratic processes of the United States and other countries, and agreed to explore creating a framework around which the two countries can work together to better understand how to deal with these cyber threats, both in terms of how these tools are used to in interfere with the internal affairs of countries, but also how these tools are used to threaten infrastructure, how these tools are used from a terrorism standpoint as well," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in the Trump-Putin meeting, said after its conclusion.
Discussions "will be ongoing with various staff levels," and the group will be "out of the State Department and...the national security advisor's office," Tillerson added.
The news was puzzling given the fact that the American intelligence community believes Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other election-related targets during the 2016 presidential campaign. The idea of collaborating with the country that perpetrated the hack drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle.
"I am sure Putin could be of enormous assistance, since he's doing the hacking," Sen. John McCain quipped on Face the Nation.
"This obviously should not happen--& obviously will not happen. Why the President of the United States would tweet it is inexplicably bizarre," Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska tweeted after Trump's first tweet. "Putin is an enemy of free religion, speech, press and protest. He is now plotting future cyber attacks on America. He won't become a friend."
"While reality & pragmatism requires that we engage Vladimir Putin, he will never be a trusted ally or a reliable constructive partner," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted. "Partnering with Putin on a 'Cyber Security Unit' is akin to partnering with Assad on a 'Chemical Weapons Unit.'"
Trump did not hold a press conference at the G20, but he did take a few questions with President Andrzej Duda of Poland prior to the summit, where NBC's Hallie Jackson asked the president whether he would "once and for all, yes or no, definitively say that Russia interfered in the 2016 election."
"Well, I think it was Russia and I think it could've been other people and other countries, but a lot of people interfered," Trump responded. "I said it very simply. I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could have been other countries, and I won't be specific, but I think a lot of people interfere. I think it's been happening for a lot time time; it's been happening for many, many years."