Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Tuesday that President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t his best day as president, but it’s “not the end of the world.”
“Yesterday wasn’t the end of the world, but literally when your only defender is Rand Paul, you have a problem,” Kinzinger told CNN’s “New Day.” “That’s where we’re at today.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had been downplaying Russian interference in recent days, saying “we all do it” and that he wished former President Barack Obama had been “more aggressive” in holding Russia accountable.
Kinzinger said Trump had drawn a false moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia, and had also erred in failing to defend U.S. intelligence community findings that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. Congress, he added, must stand up to and chastise presidents when they step out of line.
“It was a really bad day for the president yesterday,” Kinzinger said. “I like President Trump personally. I like a lot of his policies. I’m a Republican. But it is incumbent on us to call out when something like yesterday happens. I really hope the president today clarifies this because I don’t think this pro-Russia stuff is necessarily in his heart.”
