In October 2017, Maté discussed the media's coverage of the investigation in "The Nation", stating that "unverified claims are reported with little to no scepticism… developments are cherry-picked and overhyped, while countervailing ones are minimised or ignored. Front-page headlines advertise explosive and incriminating developments, only to often be undermined by the article’s content, or retracted entirely". In a July 2018 article in "The Nation" following the 2018 Russia–United States summit in Helsinki between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he defended Trump against the statements made against him, such as the claim the summit had triggered an American "national security crisis". Maté pointed to the non-existence of Iraqi Weapons of mass destruction as a reason to be skeptical of unverified claims from mostly unnamed sources. Of the "12 Russian military-intelligence officers" indicted by Mueller for hacking Democrat servers, Maté wrote that "we have yet to see the basis for the allegations that Mueller has lodged. As with any criminal case, from a petty offense to a cybercrime charge against a foreign government, a verdict cannot be formed in the absence of this evidence."