Donald Trump Blames Everyone but Vladimir Putin, Including His Justice Department, at Incredible Press Conference

President Donald Trump refused to offer any criticism of Russia or President Vladimir Putin on Monday during their joint press conference when asked if Russia shared any blame for poor relations between the two nuclear-armed nations.

Trump, whose comments were compared by some as similar to his blame of "both sides" for last year's racially charged Charlottesville, Virginia, riots, was answering a question about his early morning tweet and apparent blame of the U.S. for "foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!"

The president's response at the Finland Presidential Palace was a reiteration of his denial of any collusion between his campaign and Russia, while again refusing to cast any blame on Putin's regime despite the assertion of the U.S. intelligence community or the charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller against 12 Russian military officers.

"And I say it all the time. There was no collusion," Trump said. "I didn't know the president. There was nobody to collude with. There was not collusion with the campaign, and every time you hear all of these, 12, 14…It's stuff that has nothing to do, and frankly they admit these are not people involved in the campaign…But to the average reader out there, they're saying 'maybe it does.' It doesn't.

Trump summed up: "We ran a brilliant campaign and that's why I'm president."

Later during the press conference, Putin said he directly again denied any interference in the 2016 election when he and Trump met earlier in the day.

"President Trump mentioned the issue of the so-called interference of Russia in the American elections, and I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere in internal American affairs, including election process," Putin said.

Trump was later asked whether he believed Putin or the U.S. intelligence community—which has pegged Russia with meddling—and the president responded "I don't see any reason why it would be" Russia who interfered.

Putin, however, did admit that the hoped Trump did win the election, citing the president wanting to normalize relations.

"Yes, I did," Putin said. "Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal."

President Trump also spent much of the conference blasting the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server, and called the recent testimony of FBI agent Peter Strzok a "disgrace."

Critics of the president seized on his failure to blame Putin, much like his initial response of not defaming white nationalists after the violence in Charlottesville.