It was pretty unanimous that yesterday’s press conference was not not Trump’s best moment as president. It wasn’t the end of days, or anything comparable to 9/11 or Kristallnacht (no, really), but it was definitely cringy.

The reaction resulted in the White House calling an emergency meeting this morning, and then a press conference this afternoon. Let’s say that the president was in damage control mode.

President Trump: "I have full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies, always have." https://t.co/ZU0DDFnp0P pic.twitter.com/SzOpRHU5vG

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 17, 2018

Pres. Trump: "I have felt very strongly that while Russia's actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying … I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place." pic.twitter.com/x0fWLaKbcj

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 17, 2018

"In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't.' The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't or why it wouldn't be Russia,'" President Trump says https://t.co/ZU0DDFnp0P pic.twitter.com/8FfCRAsCXQ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 17, 2018

"We are doing everything in our power to prevent Russia interference in 2018," President Trump says. "We have a lot of power and, as you know, President Obama was given information just prior to the election, the last election 2016, and they decided not to do anything about it." pic.twitter.com/NNAUw4oIKv

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 17, 2018

Trump has said this before about the Obama administration’s inaction.

Interestingly, one person who was not flipping out over yesterday’s press conference was Professor Stephen Cohen, Russia expert and contributing editor at The Nation.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Professor Stephen Cohen said. “The reaction by most of the media, Democrats and anti-Trump people is like mob violence.”

Earlier in the day, Trump drew bipartisan criticism for questioning the conclusion of U.S. intelligence that Russia hacked the DNC’s emails in 2016, touting Putin’s “strong” denial of the allegations just laid out by Mueller.

Cohen said it’s been common since World War II for the U.S. president to meet with the leader of the Kremlin, “in order to avoid war between the two superpowers.”

“Relation between the United States and Russia are more dangerous than they have ever been, including the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Cohen said.

He said he did not vote for Trump in 2016 but that he wanted the president to meet with Putin in hopes of “walking back conflicts that could lead to war.”

Cohen called the criticisms a “kangaroo court” and that some people are “hunting Trump.”

Now, Cohen is a Russian apologist to a large extent, but I don’t think he’s wrong here. Yes, Trump says and Tweets dumb things. Yes, the presser Q&A ended up being a bad moment. But treason? 9/11? Pearl Harbor? Kristallnacht?

How To Take A Winning Hand And Make It A Losing Hand 101. https://t.co/97c0drMZ5l

— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) July 17, 2018

And there was at least one light moment in the presser today. Or, lack of light moment, actually.

At the exact moment Trump says the words "I have full faith in our intelligence agencies" all the lights in the White House flicker & turn completely off.
Trump responds "That must be the intelligence agencies. Okay, there we go. Are you guys okay? That was strange – okay?" pic.twitter.com/grYeTg7Xim

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) July 17, 2018

Can we all just take a deep breath and have everyone come down from DEFCON 1 hysteria? Is that too much to ask?