Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeffrey (Jeff) Alan MerkleyThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Trump, Biden renew push for Latino support Sunday shows - Trump team defends coronavirus response Oregon senator says Trump's blame on 'forest management' for wildfires is 'just a big and devastating lie' MORE (D-Ore.) said Tuesday that President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE ignores any facts that make him uncomfortable, referring to his response to escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

"I think President Trump finds any fact that is uncomfortable one which he wants to ignore," Merkley told CNN.

"In this case he's saying, well it's not good either way, which is in essence a reference to Russia saying, well they have their case for why it was a legitimate ability to take these vessels and imprison these sailors," Merkley continued.

Trump said Monday that the U.S. will cooperate with Europe to address an incident in which Russia fired on three Ukrainian ships, wounding some sailors and capturing two ships and a tugboat.

"We do not like what’s happening either way. We don't like what's happening, and hopefully it’ll get straightened out," Trump said.

But U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley Nimrata (Nikki) Haley'The soul' versus 'law and order' Author Ryan Girdusky: RNC worked best when highlighting 'regular people' as opposed to 'standard Republicans' GOP lobbyists pleasantly surprised by Republican convention MORE offered a more forceful response, criticizing Russia for its actions and saying that the U.S. supports Ukraine's sovereignty during a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

“We strongly support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters," Haley said Monday. "We express our deep concern over the incident, which represent a dangerous escalation and violation of international law."

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Merkley said he preferred the tone Haley set.

"That's absolutely the right response, a powerful condemnation of this act of aggression on this waterway and certainly a strong rebuke to Russian partnership with our NATO allies," he added.

"This equivalence is not OK," he said of Trump's response. "And I think that Nikki Haley said she cleared and coordinated so hopefully the president will partner with his entire team and send a strong message on this."

Merkley also said that Trump should not meet one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit later this week.

"I don't think he should meet one-on-one and it's a list of reasons," Merkley said. "First, he's under investigation for possible collusion with the Russians, we don't know what kind of connections he has financially, conflicts of interest.

"There was no transparency on his last meeting, this one-on-one meeting where only a translator was there, we still don't know what was said at that meeting and, quite frankly, there needs to be a strong front with our national security partners present to say what's acceptable and what's not."

"Just don't believe that President Trump is capable on these one-on-one meetings of conveying any form of criticism or setting any sort of boundaries," he added.

Updated at 10:25 a.m.