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'Russia has done nothing to deserve our trust' Isakson responds to Trump, Putin meeting

Georgia leaders in Washington spoke out after President Trump's meeting with Putin.
Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump shake hands before a meeting in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018.

WASHINGTON — President Trump's unwillingness to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint appearance on Monday prompted a groundswell of criticism from Democrats and Republicans — including many longtime defenders of the president.

"The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said after a joint press conference between the two leaders.

Georgia senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., sent 11Alive a statement saying Russia has done nothing to deserve the trust of the United States.

“The Russians have been attempting to influence democratic processes across the world for decades. Russia has done nothing to deserve our trust, and they should receive no special treatment. Nothing from the meeting between President Trump and President Putin in Helsinki has changed this assessment," he said.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) The Senate has voted to override President ObamaÕs veto of a bill to allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi government. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Isakson continued, saying ,"I was encouraged to see the July 3 bipartisan summary from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that supported the U.S. intelligence community’s 2017 findings that Russia’s cyber operations were extensive and sophisticated in their attempts to influence the 2016 election.”

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said he was "deeply disturbed" by the outcome of the summit and said seems "afraid to hold Russia accountable for its infringement on the election of 2016."

"Despite the deepest concerns of the intelligence community at the highest levels of government and the consternation of the Congress of the United States, this president displayed no sense of outrage, no evidence of a rebuke, and no intention to hold Russia accountable for its damage to our electoral process," Lewis said.

“Our weakness in the face of this threat leads to grave concerns about this president’s judgment. Why would he try to rip our relationships with NATO, our proven allies, to shreds and yet cower before an enemy of democracy? This is a betrayal of American interests and a danger to our national security,” he added.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers focused on Trump’s remarks that both the U.S. and Russia were to blame for troubled relations between the two countries. Trump, responding to a question about whether Russia had any responsibility for that relationship, indicated that the ongoing investigation into the 2016 election was as much to blame as the Russian interference itself.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described the meeting in Helsinki as a "tragic mistake."

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,“ said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin."

The bipartisan blow back extended beyond the usual GOP critics of Trump, aligning Russia hawks with House conservatives and others who who have defended Trump in the past. Republican criticism continued to mount Monday as Trump flew back to Washington after more than a week in Europe.

Aboard Air Force One, Trump posted on Twitter that he has "GREAT confidence" in his intelligence officials but added that "I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past."

Ahead of his meeting with Putin, Trump lashed out at NATO allies for not spending enough on their own defense and criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May in a bombshell interview in a London tabloid a day before their bilateral meeting.

But it was the president's press conference with Russia that drew the most immediate and sharpest criticism from Capitol Hill. Trump, who said he raised Crimea and election meddling in his private meetings with Putin, declined to do so in public.

READ | The 10 strongest statements from GOP lawmakers to President Trump: Russia is not our friend

ALSO | President Trump accepts Putin's denials of election meddling, prompting lawmaker outrage

“Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Our nation’s top intelligence agencies all agree on that point," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led a high-profile hearing last week delving into alleged anti-Trump bias at the FBI, said he is confident Trump’s aides will impress on him Russia’s involvement in the election.

“Russia is not our friend,” Gowdy said, adding that he hoped White House officials would communicate to Trump that “it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., agreed.

“I never thought I would see the day when our American president would stand on the stage with the Russian president and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression,” Flake, a frequent Trump critic, posted on Twitter.

“This is shameful,” he added.

Trump's embrace of Putin's denials of election meddling came days after a grand jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers on accusations that they participated in a far-reaching scheme to hack into computers of Democratic officials in 2016 in order to undermine the U.S. election.

Some lawmakers called Trump naive for taking Putin seriously when he said he might allow Mueller's prosecutors to come to Russia to interview the suspects, but only if Russia got CIA cooperation on its cyber security investigations.

During the press conference, Trump cited Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats' assessment that Russia engaged in the U.S. election and then suggested he was weighing that advice equally with Putin's denial.

"We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security," Coats said Monday.

Texas-based Republican political consultant Matt Mackowiak said he had no problem with Trump meeting with Putin to discuss policy issues, but said "it is outrageous, dangerous and ridiculous to take Putin’s word over the U.S. intelligence community" on the issue of election meddling.

Mackowiak and other Republicans took to social media to express their dismay.

After the news broadcast from Finland, former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh tweeted that Trump "speaks more favorably of Putin. TRUMP WON'T STAND WITH HIS OWN COUNTRY. That's it. That should be the final straw. It is for me."

In a subsequent tweet, Walsh said: "Trump was a traitor today. I cannot & will not support a traitor. No decent American should."

Frequent critics of the president also tossed around the word "treason."

Former CIA Director John Brennan, who worked for both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, tweeted that Trump's performance at the Putin news conference "rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors,'" the threshold for impeachment. "It was nothing short of treasonous," Brennan added.

Democrats also blasted the meeting.

"The only plausible explanation is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“The one person he hasn’t blamed is the person he stood shoulder to shoulder with this morning," Schumer said, "Vladimir Putin.”

Contributing: Eliza Collins, Erin Kelly, Deborah Barfield Berry.

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