A handful of Republican lawmakers stood by President Trump on Monday after he was widely criticized by both parties for a controversial press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he said he has yet to see any compelling reason why the Kremlin would have interfered in the 2016 election.
“I think for the president to cast doubt is appropriate,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said during an interview with CNN on Monday. “To cast doubt on the validity of any number of these things, that’s fair.”
Issa added that he was referring to anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok’s recent testimony before congressional investigators, which he said was an example of the bureau being “untrustworthy.” He also mentioned the timing of special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments on Friday alleging a dozen Russian officials hacked into Democratic email servers, especially considering those foreign nationals would likely “never be brought to justice.”
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa: “I think for the President to cast doubt is appropriate” on the validity of some things in the US intelligence community https://t.co/orXS8nz82J
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 16, 2018
But Issa, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees, condemned Putin for being “an evil man who has killed many people in his own country.”
“There’s no question at all that Russia is still an adverse entity to the United States,” he said. “We have to work with them. At the same time, we cannot trust Russia fully.”
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., also provided Trump with political cover, telling Bloomberg Television on Monday that the U.S. interferes in Russian elections “at a much higher rate” than the Kremlin meddles in U.S. elections.
Their messages of support, however, were overshadowed by sharp rebukes from some of their Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill, who described Trump’s performance during the media availability as “shameful,” “bizarre,” and “a sign of weakness.”
Trump’s remarks came after Putin repeated denials that his government was involved in malicious cyberactivity aimed at undermining the U.S. political process.
