It’s a day ending in “y” so Donald Trump must be tweeting again. Sunday it was about his one-on-one meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, which some critics call “disastrous.”
“I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion,” the POTUS tweeted Sunday morning. “We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia! Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe….”
The president added that “sanctions were not discussed at my meeting with President Putin. Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian & Syrian problems are solved!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884012097805406208
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884013689736769536
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884016887692234753
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884027201804488704
Many of Trump’s critics quickly piled on.
“Right before he met with Mr. Putin and talked with him at some length, which I’m glad he did, he said it’s an honor to meet President Putin. An honor to meet the individual who carried out the assault against our election? To me, it was a dishonorable thing to say,” former CIA Director John Brennan told Chuck Todd on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”
“It’s not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty close,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also said on “Meet the Press,” referring to the president’s discussion with President Putin about joining forces to form an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit.”
Although Graham commended Trump for his speech in Poland – which he said in a statement “…called out Russian aggression, and eloquently explained how America is safer being aligned with western democracies who share our values” – he said Sunday that POTUS’ meeting with Putin was “disastrous.”
“Two hour and 15 minutes of meetings, Tillerson and Trump are ready to forgive and forget when it comes to cyberattacks on the American election of 2016. Nobody is saying, ‘Mr. President, the Russian’s changed the outcome; you won fair and square. But they did try to attach our election system and were successful in many ways. And the more you do this, the more people are suspicious about you and Russian.’”
WATCH: Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC responds to Trump’s call to work with Russia, saying it’s not the dumbest idea “but it’s pretty close.” #MTP pic.twitter.com/8eK1y7A25a
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 9, 2017
On the flip side, Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told “Fox & Friends” Sunday morning: “Now, the president is taking this issue directly to the president of Russia and raised it, so now I think the issue is officially dead.” He went on to say that Trump went directly to Putin and pressed him to find out if Russia had anything to do with the outcome of the U.S. election.
“And from what Vladimir Putin said, the answer is ‘no,’” Lewandowski said.