Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, should resign in the wake of President Trump’s Monday remarks in which he doubted U.S. intelligence officials who say Russia meddled in the 2016 election, according to a former aide to Huntsman.
“Resign if you have any honor,” Huntsman’s former chief strategist John Weaver tweeted at the ambassador.
Weaver opposes Trump and worked for Huntsman on his 2016 presidential campaign. He also worked for Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich as a chief strategist in 2016 and for Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., in 2000
[Also read: ‘Shameful’: Senate Republicans blast Trump after he blamed US for soured Russian relationship]
@JonHuntsman Resign, if you have any honor.
— John Weaver (@JWGOP) July 16, 2018
Trump used his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismiss U.S. intelligence community conclusions that Russia interfered in the last presidential election, saying he didn’t “see any reason why it would be [Russia].”
Putin denied his country interfered in the 2016 election, and when Trump was asked whether he believes U.S. intelligence over Putin, Trump called his Russian counterpart “extremely strong and powerful.”
“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump told reporters.
Huntsman told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Russia needed to be held accountable for its actions. He was at the table with U.S. and Russian officials during Trump’s bilateral meeting with Putin in Helsinki.
Huntsman’s daughter and Fox News host Abby Huntsman said Trump threw the American people and country “under the bus” during the news conference.
“No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus,” she tweeted.
