Republicans blast Trump meeting with Putin as 'shameful' and 'sign of weakness'

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump accepts Russia's denial of 2016 election meddling U.S. lawmakers are criticizing President Trump, saying he missed an opportunity to hold Russia accountable for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

WASHINGTON — President Trump's unwillingness to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint appearance on Monday prompted a groundswell of criticism from Democrats and Republicans — including many longtime defenders of the president.

"The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said after a joint press conference between the two leaders.

"There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals," he said.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers focused on Trump’s remarks that both the U.S. and Russia were to blame for troubled relations between the two countries. Trump, responding to a question about whether Russia had any responsibility for that relationship, indicated that the ongoing investigation into the 2016 election was as much to blame as the Russian interference itself.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described the meeting in Helsinki as a "tragic mistake."

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,“ said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin."

The bipartisan blow back extended beyond the usual GOP critics of Trump, aligning Russia hawks with House conservatives and others who who have defended Trump in the past. Republican criticism continued to mount Monday as Trump flew back to Washington after more than a week in Europe.

Aboard Air Force One, Trump posted on Twitter that he has "GREAT confidence" in his intelligence officials but added that "I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past."

Several Republicans offered more cautious reaction, or kept a relatively low profile. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said "the Russians are not our friends" and said he "entirely" believes the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community that Moscow was involved in the election.

Ahead of his meeting with Putin, Trump lashed out at NATO allies for not spending enough on their own defense and criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May in a bombshell interview in a London tabloid a day before their bilateral meeting.

But it was the president's press conference with Russia that drew the most immediate and sharpest criticism from Capitol Hill. Trump, who said he raised Crimea and election meddling in his private meetings with Putin, declined to do so in public.

“Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Our nation’s top intelligence agencies all agree on that point," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led a high-profile hearing last week delving into alleged anti-Trump bias at the FBI, said he is confident Trump’s aides will impress on him Russia’s involvement in the election.

“Russia is not our friend,” Gowdy said, adding that he hoped White House officials would communicate to Trump that “it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., agreed.

“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, a frequent Trump critic, posted on Twitter.

“This is shameful,” he added.

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. This is shameful. — Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) July 16, 2018

Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections.



This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves. (1/3) — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 16, 2018

Trump's embrace of Putin's denials of election meddling came days after a grand jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers on accusations that they participated in a far-reaching scheme to hack into computers of Democratic officials in 2016 in order to undermine the U.S. election.

Some lawmakers called Trump naive for taking Putin seriously when he said he might allow Mueller's prosecutors to come to Russia to interview the suspects, but only if Russia got CIA cooperation on its cyber security investigations.

During the press conference, Trump cited Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats' assessment that Russia engaged in the U.S. election and then suggested he was weighing that advice equally with Putin's denial.

"We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security," Coats said Monday.

Texas-based Republican political consultant Matt Mackowiak said he had no problem with Trump meeting with Putin to discuss policy issues, but said "it is outrageous, dangerous and ridiculous to take Putin’s word over the U.S. intelligence community" on the issue of election meddling.

Mackowiak and other Republicans took to social media to express their dismay.

After the news broadcast from Finland, former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh tweeted that Trump "speaks more favorably of Putin. TRUMP WON'T STAND WITH HIS OWN COUNTRY. That's it. That should be the final straw. It is for me."

In a subsequent tweet, Walsh said: "Trump was a traitor today. I cannot & will not support a traitor. No decent American should."

Frequent critics of the president also tossed around the word "treason."

Former CIA Director John Brennan, who worked for both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, tweeted that Trump's performance at the Putin news conference "rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors,'" the threshold for impeachment. "It was nothing short of treasonous," Brennan added.

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Democrats also blasted the meeting.

"The only plausible explanation is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“The one person he hasn’t blamed is the person he stood shoulder to shoulder with this morning," Schumer said, "Vladimir Putin.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a Trump ally, offered a slightly more positive take.

“I’m pretty confident that the president was tougher behind closed doors,” he said.

Contributing: Gregory Korte, Erin Kelly, Deborah Barfield Berry.