NEW YORK, October 8. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump prefers to believe statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin and not the reports of the US intelligence community on Russia’s meddling in the US presidential election, US Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris stated on Wednesday during TV debate with US vice-president Michael Pence. The debate took place at the University of Utah’s Kingsbury Hall and was televised by all major American TV stations.

The senator mentioned that she is a member of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the American intelligence community told the committee that Russia meddled in the US election in 2016 and attempts to do so in 2020, while the same is confirmed by FBI director Christopher Wray. Yet when it comes to election interference, Trump "prefers to take the word of Vladimir Putin over the word of the American intelligence community," she said.

The issue of potential interference in US elections is regularly raised due to claims of American authorities that Russia was complicit in such actions back in 2016. Moscow has repeatedly rejected these accusations. In February, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the Kremlin regrettably notes that there will be increasingly more news of alleged attempts by Russia to interfere in the electoral process as the US election in November 2020 approaches. According to the spokesman, these claims "are nowhere near close to the truth.".