Donald J. Trump today sought to insert a single word in a statement he made standing next to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

He said Monday that he “saw no reason to believe Russia would” meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Today? Donald Trump said he “saw no reason to believe Russia would not” meddle.

There you have it. The president misspoke, he said, with an error of omission. He didn’t say “not” in Putin’s presence when he should have said it.

Is this good enough? Does this make it all better now, that the president of the United States really and truly stands behind our intelligence experts’ view that Putin and the Russians attacked our electoral system?

Let me think for a second about that.

Umm. No. It doesn’t make it better.

What we need now is a statement of outrage and condemnation of Russia, of Putin, of the goons who’ve been indicted by a federal grand jury that they conspired to interfere in our election.

Is any of that on the way?

Hmm. Probably not.