Even some Republicans are freaked out about the grotesque Trump-Putin press conference
Donald J. Trump held his Treason Summit today with what can only be described as his boss and handler, Vladimir Putin. The meeting took place for nearly two hours behind closed doors with only Trump and Putin present. Post-meeting, the two held a press conference, in which both downplayed any Russian interference and Trump had the audacity to end by referring to the expanding, serious Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt.”
Pre-summit, Trump had tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” To which the official Russia page, MFA Russia (@mfa_russia), responded in a retweet, “We agree.” The press conference was very similar, with Trump and Putin supporting each other in attacking the United States, the media and just about everything else.
Senator John McCain, as Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a post-debacle press release strongly blasting Trump without mincing any words. McCain, a true hero and patriot for this nation, whether you agree with him politically or not, stated in part:
Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.
President Trump…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.
It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout…. But…[t]hese were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions….
[T]oday’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency….
Even Speaker Paul Ryan put out a statement directly contradicting Donald Trump after the summit. We can only look to others to voice the clarion call: we have a compromised president and every day, his destruction becomes more irreversible.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.