After President Donald Trump congratulated Russian leader Vladimir Putin on his re-election during a phone call Tuesday, some Republican senators questioned the wisdom of commending an autocrat whose election they see as fraudulent. Others brushed it off as a diplomatic nicety.
“Calling him wouldn’t have been high on my list,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
His comments came after Arizona Republican John McCain slammed Trump for the congratulatory call, saying in a statement that “an American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.”
Asked about McCain’s statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump wanted to “have a dialogue with Russia” but “be tough when necessary.” She would not answer whether the administration considered Russia’s election to be free and fair.
“We don’t get to dictate how other countries operate,” said Sanders.
GOP senator Jeff Flake later scoffed at her remarks. “No,” said Flake. “We certainly don’t dictate, but we certainly encourage and nudge and prod and try to spread democracy around there.”
Flake told THE WEEKLY STANDARD he could understand calling Putin to express a willingness to work together, but to congratulate Putin “would have been like me calling Fidel Castro and saying, ‘Congratulations on your election victory.’”
Colorado Republican Cory Gardner said he would not have called Putin, either. Why? “He’s a dictator and somebody who doesn’t represent the values of the people,” answered Gardner. And Florida senator Marco Rubio said he didn’t know what there was to congratulate in the first place. “It’s a fake election,” he told TWS. “I don’t congratulate people for fake elections.”
Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe assessed that Sunday’s election “took place in an overly controlled environment marked by continued pressure on critical voices.” Russian authorities barred opposition activist Alexei Navalny from the race, and a number of voting irregularities were reported, including ballot-box stuffing.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham took issue with Trump’s failure during the phone call to bring up the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in the United Kingdom earlier this month. “Every time you talk with Putin and you give him a pass, that emboldens him,” Graham told reporters Tuesday night. “So our friends in Britain are probably disappointed the president didn’t push back.”
Sanders said Tuesday that the focus of the call was to discuss areas of mutual interest, and that Russian election meddling, the Skripal poisoning, and the integrity of Sunday’s election did not come up.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn appeared uncomfortable when asked about the call. “Never a dull moment around here,” he told TWS with a chuckle, avoiding the question. Would he have called Putin if he were in Trump’s shoes? “No,” the Texas Republican quickly answered.
Still, he steered clear of criticizing the president. “Well, I mean, it’s fine,” said Cornyn haltingly, reasoning that the leader of the free world would be expected to talk to officials from foreign countries. “But given the malign activities of Russia in our last elections and their continued aggression in places like Syria and Crimea in Ukraine, it’s hard to imagine Mr. Putin as anything other than an adversary,” said Cornyn.
The Trump administration defended the move by pointing to former President Barack Obama’s congratulatory call after Putin’s re-election in 2012. Democrats argue U.S.-Russia relations have deteriorated significantly in the years since that call, considering Russian aggression in Ukraine starting in 2014 and the country’s meddling in American elections in 2016.
Democratic senator Tim Kaine suggested the two calls were not comparable and went on to condemn Trump, whom he described as a “president who acts like he’s Vladimir Putin’s defense lawyer.”
“It’s shocking behavior for an American president. It’s completely unsurprising for Donald Trump,” said Kaine.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, on the other hand, saw nothing amiss in Trump’s congratulatory phone call. “Look, I think that’s fine,” Corker told TWS, arguing that diplomatic niceties such as the phone call are the norm. “I don’t think they send any kind of signal relative to the significant differences we have.”
Louisiana Republican John Kennedy agreed that Trump’s phone call wasn’t out of order.
“I’m sure the president was just being polite,” Kennedy said.
