House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized President Trump Monday for not mentioning the 12 Russians indicted by the Justice Department for election meddling in 2016 in a joint public appearance before he sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
“The president in my view was afraid to mention the subject at hand, 12 indictments against people … trying to disrupt our election,” Pelosi said at an event hosted by the progressive think tank Center for American Progress. “The president was afraid to bring it up.
[John Bolton: Hard to believe Putin didn’t know about any effort to hack Democratic emails, servers]
“We know he wasn’t being diplomatic, and it begs the question what does Vladimir Putin, what could the Russians have on Donald Trump personally, politically, financially that he should behave in such a manner?”
Trump listed topics he expected the two leaders would discuss during their private one-on-one meeting Monday and Russian interference in the 2016 election was not one of them. As Trump sat by a quiet Putin ahead of the private meeting, he said they would talk about missiles, nuclear power, China, and more, but not Russia’s attack on the U.S. and its attempts to sway the election in Trump’s favor.
Putin later said during a joint press conference that Trump mentioned the “so-called interference.” U.S. intelligence agencies determined last year that Russia interfered in an attempt to boost Trump’s chances of winning the election. Last week, special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russians, who are a part of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, for hacking into the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
During a joint press conference later Monday, Trump refused to denounce Putin and the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 election, instead pointing to Clinton’s email server. Pelosi fired back, calling Trump’s performance embarrassing.
Just several days ago, 12 Russians were indicted for attacking our democracy.
Today, America’s so-called leader embarrassingly failed to stand up to the person who spearheaded the attack.
Seriously, what does Putin have on Trump that’s he’s so afraid?
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) July 16, 2018
