Trump urged to press Putin on meddling
President warns he has ‘low expectations’
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump faced pressure to question Russian President Vladimir Putin aggressively on meddling by Moscow in the 2016 presidential election when the two leaders meet Monday in Helsinki.
Trump said Sunday he had “low expectations” for any major breakthroughs.
“Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out,” Trump told CBS News anchor Jeff Glor.
Trump has had warm words for Putin and has been willing at times to accept his denials of election meddling at face value. But the Justice Department last week announced the indictments of 12 Russian agents who are accused of hacking into Democratic emails during the campaign.
Trump’s own national security adviser, John Bolton, called the Russian interference a “serious matter” and said Sunday he was skeptical of Putin’s claims that he had no knowledge of it.
“I find it hard to believe, but that’s what one of the purposes of this meeting is so the president can see eye-toeye with President Putin and ask him about it,” Bolton told ABC’s “This Week.”
Speaking on “Face the Nation,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the details laid out in the indictments – which are part of the investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller – underscored the importance of confronting Putin.
“I think the president should be clear-eyed about who he is dealing with,” said Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican. “Putin is an autocrat. He’s a thug. He does not respect the rule of law. Obviously, he doesn’t respect our democracy and wants to undermine it at every – every chance he gets.”
Gowdy’s advice to Trump was to press for the extradition of the Russians accused in the latest indictment and also of 13 others charged in an earlier indictment with using social media to interfere in the U.S. election.
“Your first request of Vladimir Putin needs to be, tell us which airport we can pick up the 25 Russians that tried to interfere with the fundamentals of our democracy,” Gowdy said.
Trump repeatedly has called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt.” Over the weekend, he blamed President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee for leaving the Democratic email servers vulnerable to hacking.
Trump has said he would bring up the election issue but he also suggested he sees little point in doing so since Putin was likely to deny involvement in any meddling.
He told Glor that he “hadn’t thought about” asking Putin for the extradition of the Russian agents but he said he might bring it up.
Democrats have called on Trump to cancel the meeting with Putin. They have also expressed alarm at Trump’s decision to lash out at European allies at last week’s NATO summit. NATO was formed as a bulwark against Russian aggression, and the rifts between Trump and European have been welcomed in Russia.
Trump’s meetings in Helsinki are scheduled to begin at 6:20 a.m. EDT.