Donald Trump says Russia isn't to blame for MH17, despite evidence
Donald Trump doesn't believe there is enough evidence to blame pro-Russian separatists for last year's downing of a commercial airliner over Ukraine -- despite the fact that the U.S. intelligence community believes "with confidence" that pro-Russian separatists shot it down.
Trump was asked on MSNBC Wednesday about a new report from Dutch investigators that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian-made rocket and warhead -- and asked what he would do as president to hold Russia accountable.
"They say it wasn't them," he replied. "It may have been their weapon, but they didn't use it, they didn't fire it, they even said the other side fired it to blame them. I mean to be honest with you, you'll probably never know for sure."
Trump later said the culprit was "probably" Russia and pro-Russian fighters, but he said the U.S. needs to focus on its own problems right now and not "get involved" in overseas conflicts, even one as "horrible" as this.
Reports that MH17 was downed by a Russian-made missile
"I think it is horrible," Trump said of the incident. "But they're saying it wasn't them. The other side says it is them. And we're going to go through that arguing for probably for 50 years and nobody is ever going to know. Probably was Russia."
Trump said regardless, it's time to turn the page.
"It's a long ways away. We have to get back to making America great again," he said. "It's terrible, but we really probably won't know for sure. And you'll probably never find out. There are only a few people that know. And you know one of them could be (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, frankly, and we know one thing: He's not going to be talking about it."
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Republican presidential front-runner's remarks seem to bolster the Russian line of response to the report, which was released on Tuesday, and previous accusations that the government could have been involved in the missile launch.
Early in the investigation, a senior defense official told CNN that the U.S. intelligence community believed pro-Russian separatists were behind the explosion and could not have operated the Russian missile system without Russian training.
Russian participants in the Dutch investigation have denied there is conclusive evidence about the origin of the missile.
News Courtesy: www.cnn.com
