Sen. John McCain blasts Trump for 'one of the most disgraceful performances' he's seen

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez | The Republic | azcentral.com

Sen. John McCain blasted President Donald Trump's joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday as "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."

McCain's issued statement was among a number of Republican lawmakers who were condemning Trump's appearance in Helsinki, Finland. There, Trump seemed to accept Putin's denials of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, overlooking mountains of evidence gathered by U.S. intelligence officials in favor of Russia.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a frequent Trump critic, said in a statement that "no prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."

McCain's statement reminds the public that he maintains a Cold War-style view of Russia and further underscores the political rift between himself and many of his fellow Republicans, who have remained silent.

McCain, 81, is in Arizona as he battles a deadly form of brain cancer. While not on Capitol Hill, the six-term senator remains engaged. In condemning Trump's performance, McCain once again catapulted himself onto the world stage while taking on a familiar foe: Putin.

During the Monday morning news conference, Trump said both countries were to blame for their troubled relationship and seemed to capitulate to Putin's denials of election-meddling.

Last week, 12 Russian military intelligence officers were indicted in a far-reaching hacking scheme that was part of the Kremlin's effort to undermine the 2016 election

“The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate," McCain's statement said. "But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.

Today’s press conference in #Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.



My full statement on the #HelsinkiSummit: https://t.co/lApjctZyZl — John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 16, 2018

“President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world."

McCain said Trump's performance could not solely be blamed on an ill-prepared and inexperienced president.

Instead, he said, Trump willfully seemed deliberately determined to disregard Putin's "violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world."

That Trump was accompanied by experienced and "patriotic" aides made his performance worse, McCain said.

Congress' reactions mixed to Trump, Putin Summit Key members of Congress are reacting to President Donald Trump's performance at a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (July 16)

Sen. Jeff Flake, McCain's Arizona Republican colleague, also weighed in, saying Trump's actions were "shameful."

"I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression," Flake wrote on Twitter.

Mark Salter, McCain's former Senate chief of staff and co-author with him on several books, responded on Twitter to a reporter who observed that McCain was absent from the Senate.

"Yes, indeed. And no one feels that more acutely than the man himself," Salter tweeted.

Meghan McCain, McCain's daughter, noted McCain and Putin's long history of mutual animosity and tweeted that she has "never been more proud of the fact that Putin hates my father so much he personally sanctioned him on Russia’s enemies list."

I don’t have anything quippy to tweet. I’m horrified - and have never been more proud of the fact that Putin hates my father so much he personally sanctioned him on Russia’s enemies list. — Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 16, 2018

McCain, a longtime Putin foe, warned about Russian hackers meddling in the U.S. elections system long before last weeks' indictments came down.

In 2014, Putin officially sanctioned McCain. He was included on a list of Capitol Hill lawmakers and White House officials sanctioned by Russia as U.S.-Russian relations deteriorated over the Ukraine crisis.

In his new political memoir, "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations," McCain dedicated many pages to what he deems the dangers Putin poses to the West.

"Putin is uniquely vulnerable and yet, from the Donbass to Syria to an American presidential election, he is on the attack," McCain and co-author Salter wrote. "Because he has not encountered the resolve it will take to expose his precarious position, to shatter his ambitions. Until he does meet that resolve, there's no end to the trouble he'll cause, and the victims he'll claim."

In raising his voice on this issue, McCain is reminding his colleagues of what they should be focused on, said Don Ritchie, the Senate's former historian.

"He's automatically a voice in international relations and he can't physically be there for the time being," Ritchie said. "When he speaks, he's not just speaking to the cameras, he's speaking to his colleagues, and it has an impact on what they think and what they do."

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