House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said President Trump’s call for Russia to be readmitted into the Group of Seven is a “terrible idea.”
During an interview on MSNBC on Thursday, the California Democrat said such a move would further embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s a terrible idea because the whole genesis of this was, of course, Russia’s invasion of its neighbor and its occupation, to this day of a significant part of its neighbor’s territory. And to invite them back in without condition, essentially ratifies that illegal act and encourages Russia to do more of the same,” Schiff said on Morning Joe.
He was referring to how Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, which prompted the then-Group of Eight to remove Russia.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump renewed his call for Russia to be readmitted into the alliance, saying it would be an “appropriate” move. “I guess President Obama, because Putin outsmarted him — President Obama thought it wasn’t a good thing to have Russia in, so he wanted Russia out,” Trump said. “But I think it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in.”
Schiff, who has renewed the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, said there may be a troubling motive behind Trump’s words.
“Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one. And when we learn, for example, that the president had been lying to the country about his business interests in Russia, his explanation was that he might have lost his election and he didn’t want to miss out on those business opportunities,” he said, referring to the Moscow Trump Tower deal.
“He doesn’t want to lose out on economic interests that he still has,” Schiff said, adding that this also means Trump is refusing to protect U.S. elections from future foreign interference efforts like he should.
