President Trump on Monday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, for a formal bilateral meeting for the first time during his presidency, despite high political risk to himself.
Trump had made improving relations with Russia one of his campaign goals, but continuing accusations that his campaign had colluded with Russia have made the prospect difficult.
Even before Trump sat down with Putin, critics said meeting with him was a mistake, rewarded Putin for meddling in the 2016 presidential elections, and would be a disaster for the U.S.
The meeting also could not have come at a worse time — right on the heels of a highly contentious hearing last week with FBI official Peter Strzok, who launched the investigation against the Trump campaign and argued his anti-Trump texts came from a “deep patriotism.” Democrats applauded him, with one saying he deserved a medal reserved for those wounded in combat.
But Trump said that despite the political risks, they would not stop him from doing what was best for the American people.
“Nothing would be easier politically than to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage, but that would not accomplish anything,” he said at a press conference after the meeting. He added:
As president, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics, or the media, or Democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct. Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia affords the opportunity to open new pathways toward peace and stability in our world. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics. As president, I will always put what is best for America and what is best for the American people.
Trump, during his private meeting with Putin, brought up the thorny topics of Russian election meddling and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, despite critics questioning whether either would be brought up.
Trump said he “addressed directly” the issue of Russian interference in the election with Putin, and that they “spent a great deal of time talking about it.” He also brought up the 12 Russian military intelligence officials that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted last Friday for hacking Democrat campaign officials.
Putin denied that Russia had interfered, but said he would “look into” the 12 Russian officials, since Trump had mentioned it.
He said Trump also brought up the issue of Crimea — a peninsula that Russia forcibly annexed in 2014 from Ukraine. He said Trump had maintained that the annexation was illegal, though he disagreed.
There were other areas of disagreement discussed, such as the U.S. pulling out of the Iran deal, but both Putin and Trump said they wanted to improve the relationship to work on areas of mutual interest, such the security situation in Syria, terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, energy, space, and cyber-security.
“Clearly there are some challenges left when we were not able to clear all the backlog, but I think that we made the first important step in this direction,” Putin said.
After the meeting, there were political attacks.
Critics mostly seized on Trump’s answer to a question from the Associated Press whether Trump believed his own intelligence agencies – who said Russia had meddled in the election – or Putin’s denial.
Trump said he had confidence in “both parties,” and said he wanted to see the Democratic National Committee’s server that was allegedly hacked by the Russians but never turned over to the FBI.
Democrats and Never-Trumpers united, renewing cries of “treason.”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) — who had said last week he wanted to give Strzok a Purple Heart — tweeted, “Where are our military folks? The Commander in Chief is in the hands of our enemy!” He later said that he was not suggesting a military coup.
Current and former GOP members of Congress weighed in, with former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrinch calling it “the most serious mistake of his presidency,” and Mitt Romney, a Utah Senate candidate, calling it “disgraceful and detrimental.”
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman’s own daughter, Abby Huntsman, a Fox News host, asserted that Trump had thrown his own people “under the bus.”
However, some Republicans defended Trump.
Sen. David Purdue (R-GA) told CNN, “He’s got information I don’t have. … I’m not going to second guess a comment like that … What we have to do right now is we have to hold them accountable, and that’s what he’s trying to do.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also backed Trump, citing “Trump derangement syndrome” from the left.
“I think Trump is different, and he’s willing to meet with foreign leaders and, actually, I think you may get a breakthrough because of the meetings,” he said on PBS’s NewsHour. He added:
And I think, if this were anybody else, if there weren’t such acute hatred for Trump, such Trump derangement syndrome on the left, I think, if this were President Obama — and it could have actually been President Obama early in the first term, when they were trying to reset our relations with Russia, that could have easily had a meeting like this — and the left and the media would have had a love-fest over President Obama So, I think this really shows people — hatred for President Trump more than anything.
Paul also defended Trump’s “healthy dose of skepticism” towards the U.S. intelligence community, saying he shared some of it.
I mean, James Clapper came before the Senate and lied. He said they weren’t collecting our information. That’s the biggest bold-faced lie that we have had in decades, and nobody did anything about it.
You now have John Brennan, whose first vote was for the Communist party, now calling President Trump a traitor. And so these people have really exposed or revealed themselves as great partisans. And yet they had the power to snoop on any American, to snoop on any person in the world. And believe you me, they were scooping up everybody’s information.
Trump did later clarify his comments, however, regarding his answer to the AP reporter:
“I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people. However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! #HELSINKI2018.”
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