Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., assailed President Trump Monday for refusing to denounce Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government’s interference in the 2016 elections, asserting that Trump is “putting himself over our country.”
“In the entire history of our country, Americans have never seen a president of the United States support an American adversary the way @realDonaldTrump has supported President Putin,” Schumer tweeted Monday following Trump’s joint press conference with Putin.
[More: ‘Shameful’: Senate Republicans blast Trump after he blamed US for soured Russian relationship]
Trump wouldn’t condemn Russia’s actions nor directly address the 12 Russian hackers charged by special counsel Robert Mueller last week for meddling in the 2016 election, instead blaming both countries and pointing to Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
“For the president of the United States to side with President Putin against American law enforcement, American defense officials, and American intelligence agencies is thoughtless, dangerous, and weak,” Schumer said. “The president is putting himself over our country.”
A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: what could possibly cause @realDonaldTrump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 16, 2018
Schumer said Monday’s meeting in Helsinki will leave millions of Americans wondering if “the only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.”
“What the heck could it be,” Schumer asked while raising the point in a press conference later in the day. He added that the remarks were an “insult to all Americans” and that Putin is the “real victor.”
Schumer called on Republicans to take a number of actions in the aftermath of the summit and press conference. He called on them to increase sanctions on the Russians, urged on the president’s national security team to testify before Congress, pushed Republicans to discontinue attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller and the Department of Justice, and demanded that Trump insist on the the 12 Russians indicted by the DOJ last week be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., raised a similar question earlier Monday, asking “what does Putin have on Trump [that] he’s so afraid?”
Al Weaver contributed to this report.
