Durbin: Trump Joins Putin In "Blaming America First"
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s remarks at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin:
President Trump’s performance in Helsinki was appalling. By ignoring the evidence of Russian interference in our 2016 election, President Trump joined Vladimir Putin in blaming America for the charges and throwing our intelligence and justice officials under the bus.
The President’s non-stop preening over his 2016 election victory shows clearly that his ego is more important to him than standing up for America. What part of the seizing of Crimea, shooting down a Malaysian aircraft, invading Ukraine, nerve agent attack in England, threats to Poland and the Baltics, and attacking the U.S. election process makes Vladimir Putin such a loveable rascal in the eyes of Donald Trump?
President Trump – the self-proclaimed ‘great deal maker’ – growls at our allies and licks the hand of a Russian tyrant. Question to Republican leaders: Will you stand with John McCain’s clear condemnation of President Trump’s Helsinki performance?
On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Special Counsel Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russians for their activities to interfere in the 2016 election by engaging in a sustained operation to hack into the computer networks of Democratic campaign organizations, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and state and local election administrators and vendors. The indicted individuals were members of Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU. Durbin’s statement on Friday’s indictment is available here. On Saturday, Durbin joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in calling on President Trump to cancel his meeting with President Putin unless he made Russia’s attack on the U.S. election the top issue he would discuss.
Last week, Durbin expressed deep concern about the current course of American foreign policy under President Trump. In his speech on the Senate floor, Durbin slammed President Trump's willingness to recklessly undermine allies and instead cozy up to adversaries like Russia and North Korea.
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