Putin rushes to Trump’s defense, laments U.S. infighting
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin rushed Wednesday to defend President Donald Trump from criticism over sharing classified information with Moscow, issuing a strongly worded statement that was seen as reflecting the degree of the Russian leader’s frustration with the Washington infighting that has thwarted Kremlin hopes for a detente.
Mr. Putin called the dramatic charges swirling around Mr. Trump evidence of “political schizophrenia spreading in the U.S.” He offered to furnish a “record” of the Trump-diplomats meeting in the Oval Office if the White House desired it.
There was no word on what that
record might entail, a question many were expected to raise in light of Mr. Trump’s recent warning to former FBI Director James Comey that he had “better hope” there were no tapes of a discussion they’d had.
However, Mr. Putin’s offer to provide a transcript of the controversial private Oval Office meeting was viewed as further fueling allegations that the White House has had improper dealings with Moscow, widely seen as a U.S. adversary.
Several U.S lawmakers dismissed Mr. Putin’s offer to provide a transcript of Mr. Trump’s meeting with the Russian diplomats, from which the U.S. news media was barred and only a Russian photographer permitted to attend.
In an interview with CBS News, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Mr. Putin was “the last person Trump needs to vouch for him right now,” adding that the credibility of any transcript the Kremlin could provide “would be less than zero.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, RFla., also scoffed at the trustworthiness of Moscow’s transcript offer, telling Fox News that “if it comes in an email, I wouldn’t click on the attachment.”
At the same time, Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s Republican colleagues were ready Wednesday to accept the House majority leader’s explanation that he was joking in his private comments last year suggesting that then-candidate Trump was being paid by Mr. Putin.
“It was a bad attempt at a joke,” Mr. McCarthy, RCalif., told reporters Wednesday evening, moments after The Washington Post published an account of the remark based on a recording of a June 2016 meeting of GOP leaders. “That’s all there is to it. Nobody believes it to be true.”
Mr. Trump’s decision to divulge classified intelligence with Russian diplomats was viewed as marking a step toward Mr. Putin’s long-held goal of forging an alliance with the U. S. in the fight against terrorism.
Mr. Putin has pushed for anti-terror cooperation for years, arguing that the fight against the Islamic State group and other extremist organizations would only succeed if Moscow and Washington combined their efforts.
The Russian leader revealed his growing impatience Wednesday with a stinging attack on Mr. Trump’s critics. While the Kremlin initially refrained from comment about the intelligence controversy, Mr. Putin finally dropped decorum and lashed out at Mr. Trump’s detractors in decidedly undiplomatic language.
“I’m surprised to see them upsetting the domestic political situation in the United States under anti-Russian slogans,” he said. “These people either don’t understand that they are hurting their own country, and in that case they are just dumb. Or they do understand everything, and that means that they are dangerous and unscrupulous.”
Mr. Putin said he was pleased by the results of Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with Mr. Trump, but demonstrated his irritation with what he described as anti-Russian “political schizophrenia spreading in the U.S.”
“We initially watched the evolving political struggle with amusement, but today it makes us feel sad and causes concern,” he said.
He added that “it’s up to the American people to judge President Trump’s actions, and obviously it can only be done when he’s allowed to work at full capacity.”