Posted on 07/16/2018 2:55:20 PM PDT by reaganaut1
President Trump faced harsh bipartisan criticism back home for his Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin on Monday, as lawmakers claimed the U.S. president missed a chance to "stand up" to the Russian president on election meddling.
The U.S. president, for his part, called the summit with Putin "deeply productive." After Democrats for days called on him to nix the meeting in the wake of indictments against Russian officers for U.S. campaign hacking, Trump said he would "not make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics."
He cited progress on a range of issues, and said it would be a "good thing" to get along with Russia.
However, the president angered members of both parties by saying both countries share blame for damaged relations and by not firmly standing by U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia meddled in the 2016 elections.
Trump said he has great confidence in the intelligence community, but Putin gave a "strong and powerful" denial. He said he doesn't "see any reason why" Russia would be behind election meddling.
"There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., countered.
Others were less reserved in their response.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been out of Washington for months battling brain cancer, issued a blistering statement calling the performance “disgraceful.”
“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
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Fox News going down the tubes.
McC should shut up and save his strength for fighting his cancer.
McCain and Ryan are scared stiff Putin's got the goods on all of them.
Trump was absolutely correct in giving Putin a platform
Rinos and lib/comies are circling the President now.
They have yet to show any shared of concrete evidence to prove Russia influenced the election.
Fox is going full retard... again/still.
Manufactured outrage - reaction to media narrative that was pre-written to be the headlines and story of the day no matter what was actually said. Even if as bad as described, it pails in comparison to the hot mike moment with Obama, and this wall to wall media outrage did not materialize when that occurred. Yet again, nothing genuine about this.
“The 1980s called...they want their foreign policy back.”
Wait until November. If the Russians are, in fact interfering in our elections and if their purpose is to cause confusion and distrust in the system then what better way to do that than ensure Democrats take the House and Senate this November?
So these neo-cons want a war?
“POTUS should fire Rosenstein. The timing of Friday’s indictments was a deliberate setup to sabotage POTUS, the summit, and US-Russia relations.”
Mainly, the former: The main target was Trump, and the intent was to sabotage him, personally.
From the way the Democrats and RINOs are reacting, you’d think Trump had handed Eastern Europe over to the Russians at Yalta or something—oh, wait, that wasn’t Trump, who did that again?
“POTUS should fire Rosenstein.”
Which should be followed by Trump activating the militia and cutting orders to remove every deep state federal bureaucrat fascist in every state.
Then we need an American-style Nuremberg trial to judge each of them before a military tribunal.
CNN is calling PDJT a traitor. The same intelligence agencies that have been lying and trying to take him down should just be ‘trusted’ without question. And yes, they just keep saying ‘intereference without question’. Well, I do question it, as the American people have never seen ANY evidence, not a shred.
“PUTIN: As to who is to be believed, who is not to be believed, you can trust no one. Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him? He defends the interests of the United States of America. I do defend the interests of the Russian Federation.”
Was the above quote in the transcript ?
http://time.com/5339848/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-transcript/
Thanks for posting the link. The transcript is much more businesslike than all the media hysteria.
Great point! Wished I had thought of it. Who did criticize FDR and Churchill over this in 1945?
There is a contagious disease going around and it is very contagious. It is called TDS. TRUMP DERANGE SYNDROM. No matter what the guy does, the disease just continues to spread. As far as I can remember, Obama, Clinto, the Bushes, Reagan, and all the other presidents in the last hundred years met with the leader of Russia. There was nothing wrong with that. But noooooo, it’s no good when Trump does it. It’s treasonous, it’s not our values, etc., etc. etc.. What a bunch of crock. This disease has crippled people’s minds.
The Russians interfered with our elections? So what. They along with many other nations have been sticking their noses in our business seems for ever. We, the USA, have stuck our noses in other nations elections for as long as I can remember. What hypocrites the never-Trumpers are! Did we not try to influence the elections in Israel? What about Gaddafi? etc., etc. etc..
Is it wrong for foreigners to vote in our elections? Is it wrong for foreigners to protest throughout our streets? If it is wrong for Russians to do it, what about the influx of non-citizens coming in illegally and disrupting our legal system , not to mention our elections.
What hypocrites! We are being invaded and the hypocrites don’t care. What a bunch of crap. TDS may destroy our system. The never-Trumpers and the MSM are doing the work of those nations that are not our friends. They are pouring gasoline on a fire: the Witch Hunt. What do these never-Trumpers want – a War? SO SAD.
you would think he gave russia 20 of our uranium
Ryan is such a weenie and his grandstanding is bogus. Everyone on the planet knows that any Russian meddling had no effect on the outcome. The amount that the Russians spent was paltry, and they did not even invest in key swing states.
The real election meddling is from the Deep Staters. They threw the primary for Hitlery. In the general, they put in machines that were rigged to vote Dem. They drove in paid leftists to vote in swing states and claim residency after living in a motel for a few days, they printed up ballots in corrupt Dem machine cities like Philly, Detroit, Cleveland for dead people’s votes, they drove illegals to the polls. Despite all that, including Ryan’s treasonous attempts to sabatoge him, Trump won.
So, we’re all supposed to really think that Russia had such an impact on the election? If we don’t, we are unpatriotic? We need to create a crisis with our most powerful nuclear rival and start a war? Over what? Some stupid Russian social media posts that were critical of hitlery and Trump? Over a few thousand dollars spent in WI?
Ryan, the leftists and other Rinos are trying to bamboozle the public again. Divert, distract, and deceive. It won’t work.
Mr. Magic underwear will be taking his place.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.