Senate rejects Putin proposal
WASHINGTON• The Republican-led Senate signalled unease with President Donald Trump’s shifting policies toward Russia after his meeting with Vladimir Putin as the White House announced the U.S. president is seeking a repeat summit in Washington later this year.
The Senate effectively rebuked Trump for considering Putin’s request to question U.S. officials amid rising concern in Washington that the rest of the U.S. government still doesn’t know what happened in Trump and Putin’s private meeting in Helsinki on Monday.
Putin told Russian diplomats that in Helsinki, he proposed a referendum to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine but agreed not to disclose the plan so that Trump could consider it, according to two people who attended Putin’s closed-door speech on Thursday.
Three days after the summit, Trump’s director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, told an audience in Aspen, Colo., that “I don’t know” what happened during the president’s one-onone meeting with Putin, which lasted about two hours.
The White House meanwhile announced Trump has invited Putin for a second summit in Washington the fall. “Discussions are already underway” to prepare for the followup meeting, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a tweet.
Coats was surprised to learn about the invitation. A moderator at the Aspen Security Forum broke into their conversation to describe the invitation. “Say that again,” Coats said, cupping his ear. He took a deep breath and continued, “OK.” Then he smiled and said, “That’s going to be special.”
In a resolution adopted 98-0 on Thursday, senators called on the government to refuse to make any current or former U.S. officials available for interrogation by Putin’s government. Minutes before the vote was scheduled to begin, Sanders issued a statement rejecting the Russian proposal.
The measure that forced the White House’s hand is non-binding. But it was written by the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, and put to a vote by the majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, an unmistakable message to the president.
Some administration officials have said they are concerned there may be no shaking a public perception that Trump is too cozy with Putin. It was only three days ago that Trump stood next to the Russian president in Helsinki and questioned U.S. intelligence findings that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election.
Since then Trump issued a belated clarification, undercut the reversal with qualifiers, made new comments contradicting U.S. intelligence and then sent his spokeswoman out to deny it happened.