Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, questioned President Trump’s negotiation skills after the president claimed he “strongly pressed” Russian President Vladimir Putin on his country’s interference in the U.S. election.
“No art to this deal: What kind of ‘tough negotiator’ goes into talks undermining his country’s own position, as you did attacking US intel?” Schiff asked via Twitter after Trump said Putin “vehemently denied” the meddling.
No art to this deal: What kind of “tough negotiator” goes into talks undermining his country’s own position, as you did attacking US intel? https://t.co/sHTa9mmy2J
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 9, 2017
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Schiff echoed his tweet, saying Trump “betrayed” the U.S. position on Russia’s meddling when he refused to solely blame Russia for the interference.
Schiff asked if Americans can really believe that Trump “pressed Putin hard when only the day before he was denying that we really knew that Russia was responsible.”
“It just strains credulity to think the president took a very different position privately with Vladimir Putin than he took publicly the day before,” Schiff said. “Why on Earth would you do that … and so undermine your own position? We’re, I guess, meant to believe he’s much stronger in private than he’s willing to be publicly. Why does that make any rational sense?
Trump has not revealed whether he accepted Putin’s denial of interfering in the presidential election, as the Russians claimed after the meeting.
Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus told “Fox News Sunday” Trump “absolutely did not believe the denial of President Putin.”
