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 ...
The fen dwellers of the DC swamp are bi partisan.
And Harry Reid, the guy who got too enthusiastic and set Brennan’s scheme rolling is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer.
This is how it reads in your transcript
PUTIN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): As to who is to be believed and to who’s not to be believed, you can trust no one if you take this.
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, and I do defend the interests of the Russian Federation.
I want to see McCain READ that statement, live on televising.
They will all go on serious attacks now because it’s obvious Putin knows where a lot of their skeletons lie.....explains why Schumer and company were trying to stop the private meeting in the first place....
Didn't think so...
The question is, how much will be done this election cycle to stop that kind of thing. I recently read that a Russian organization had bought (or a controlling interest) in the Maryland organization that handles the mechanics of state voting. Is this happening in other states???
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