Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday demanded that President Trump hand over any notes he has from his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said Congress needs to interview his translator and everyone else involved in the meeting.
“Where are the notes from that meeting?” Schumer, D-N.Y., asked on the Senate floor. “What did the president agree to? Can we have the translator come in and testify? Was Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo briefed afterwards on what happened? Did he take notes? Were any other members of the president’s team? The notes need to be turned over to Congress immediately.”
“We need to know this because as frightening and damaging as the president’s comments were to the public in Helsinki, what he said behind closed doors is in all likelihood even worse,” Schumer said.
Schumer made that demand and several others after Trump said in a press conference with Putin in Helsinki that he didn’t see why Russia would have tried to interfere in the U.S. election.
Trump on Tuesday said he misspoke, and that he meant to say he didn’t see any reason why Russia did not interfere with the election. But Schumer said Trump’s walk-back would only embolden Putin further.
[Also read: Putin denies 2016 election interference, offers to help interrogate accused Russians]
“What is President Putin going to take out of the president’s actions today?” Schumer asked on the Senate floor. “That the man is weak, that he’s afraid, that he’s cowardly and that Putin will feel that he can take even further advantage of Donald Trump.”
Schumer made several other demands, including the testimony of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, U.S. ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman and any others involved in the meeting. Schumer also said Republicans must stop attacking the Justice Department as it investigates Trump’s possible ties to Russia, and that Trump must release his tax returns and insist Russia deliver the 12 officials who have been indicted for hacking into Democratic servers during the election.
