Allies get assailed, Russia gets respect
Congress erupts in furious reproach of ‘pushover’ president
HELSINKI – President Donald Trump accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials that Moscow interfered with the 2016 U.S. election, bringing swift condemnation Monday from members of Congress from both parties.
After meeting privately with Putin for two hours in Helsinki, Trump said he held both the United States and Russia responsible for the deterioration in relations between the two countries. “I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish,” he said.
Trump declined to challenge Putin’s insistence that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, even though U.S. intelligence agencies under two administrations and the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Commit-
tee concluded that Moscow sought to skew the election toward Trump.
“I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia,” Trump told a joint news conference he held with the Russian president. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
Trump’s embrace of Putin came on the last day of a weeklong European trip in which he berated NATO allies over their defense spending and undercut British Prime Minister Theresa May in the tabloids.
His handling of the Putin meeting drew scathing reactions from lawmakers.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Trump made the United States look like “a pushover,” and the president’s remarks “saddened” him. Corker said he thought Putin probably celebrated the outcome of the meeting.
“I would guess he’s having caviar right now,” said Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described the meeting in Helsinki as a “tragic mistake.”
“President Trump proved not only unable but unwilling to stand up to Putin,” said McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Friday, the Justice Department laid out details of what it said was a farreaching hacking scheme in an indictment of 12 Russian agents it accused of trying to undermine the U.S. election.
Putin said through a translator that he was glad Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, but Moscow would “never interfere in internal American affairs.”
Trump’s own director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, reasserted his belief that Moscow attempted to influence the outcome of the election.
“We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling,” Coats said in a statement.
Lawmakers urged Trump to press for the extradition of the 12 Russian intelligence agents named in the indictment, but Putin did not commit to do so.
Putin suggested that the two countries form a joint working group on cybersecurity that would look into the election issue.
Putin proposed that same plan after the presidents met at a Group of Seven summit in Germany last year. Trump initially supported it, then reversed himself. Monday, he called it an “interesting idea.”
Some lawmakers called on Trump to reiterate the U.S. position opposing Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Putin said that issue came up during their private meetings, but Trump did not discuss it during the news conference.
Trump again attacked the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference.
Trump said he ran a clean campaign and beat Clinton soundly in 2016.