Trump roasted for call toasting Putin
Aides said to have warned president not to offer praise
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump recounted for reporters Tuesday his “very good call” to congratulate newly reelected President Vladimir Putin, drawing a searing blast from Sen. John McCain, who said Trump had “insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election.”
“An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections,” McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement and on his Twitter account.
Officials familiar with the call said Trump did not follow warnings from his national security advisers when he congratulated Putin, including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.”
Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn Putin about the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a nerve agent, a case that the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow.
News of the TrumpPutin call came first from the Kremlin — foreign governments often disclose contacts with Trump before the White House, and with more i nformation — prompting reporters to question the president about the call during a brief session in the Oval Office.
“We had a very good call,” Trump said, “and I suspect that we’ll be meeting in the President Donald Trump congratulated Russia’s Vladimir Putin on his re-election, a move that drew criticism Tuesday. not-too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered little clarification about a future meeting of the presidents. “There are no specific plans made at this time,” she said.
Trump spoke to reporters as his visitor in the Oval Office, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, looked on.
Trump’s conversation with Putin also came as lawmakers try to persuade the president to back down from his increasingly public battle with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential race, possible links to the Trump campaign and whether the president has sought to obstruct justice.
Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday stepped to microphones in the Capitol to try to dissuade Trump from firing Mueller, a move that most Republicans believe would be catastrophic for his presidency.
“The special counsel should be free to follow through with his investigation to its completion without interference, absolutely,” Ryan told reporters Tuesday. “I am confident he will be able to do that. I received assurances that his firing is not even under consideration.”
Asked whohad given him those assurances, Ryan replied: “Oh, I’m not going to get into that.”
The suggestion was that it was Trump’s lawyers, who publicly insisted after the president maligned Mueller over the weekend that Trump was not considering firing the man leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. McConnell cited the lawyers’ comments as proof that Trump did not plan to lean on his Justice Department to fire Mueller.
“I heard the president’s lawyers say that Bob Mueller should be allowed to finish his job,” McConnell said. He went on to praise Mueller, a former FBI director with broad bipartisan support. “I think he will go where the facts lead him and I think he will have great credibility with the American people when he reaches the conclusion of this investigation.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Flake, a Trump’s critic, said he would support impeachment proceedings against Trump if the president ends Mueller’s investigation “without cause.”
“We’re begging him, ‘Don’t go down this road. Don’t create a constitutional crisis. Don’t force the Congress to take the only remedy that Congress can take,’ ” said Flake, R-Ariz. “To remind the president of that is the best way to keep him from going down that road.”
Regarding Trump’s rapport with Putin, few Republicans have been as outspoken as McCain, the longtime Senate Armed Services committee chairman who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer.
More typical of Republican reaction was a comment from McConnell, who was noncommittal on Trump’s call to Putin, saying, “The president can call whomever he chooses.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is McCain’s close friend but less publicly critical of Trump, echoed McCain’s critique of Putin’s re- election Sunday. He tweeted: “Congratulations to Russian President Putin on his Fake Victory in the Fake Election. Heaven help the 25% who didn’t vote for him!”
Putin was re- elected Sunday with more than 77 percent of the vote.
Trump told reporters that he and Putin discussed matters related to North Korea, Syria and Ukraine.
Later, asked whether Trump raised the subject of Moscow’s U.S. election interference, Sanders said, “I don’t believe it came up.”