Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday that he is not satisfied with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s assurance that President Trump repeatedly pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin about election meddling during a meeting between the two leaders Friday.
After the Trump-Putin meeting, which occurred on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Schiff, D-Calif., took exception to an account by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Trump had agreed with Putin to form a joint cybersecurity task force.
“The establishment of a working group as reported by Foreign Minister Lavrov to study how to curb cyber interference in elections in which the Russians would play any role, would be akin to inviting the North Koreans to participate in a commission on nonproliferation — it tacitly adopts the fiction that the Russians are a constructive partner on the subject instead of the worst actor on the world stage,” Schiff said in a statement.
Schiff: Working w/ Russia on elex meddling “would be akin to inviting the North Koreans to participate in a commission on nonproliferation.” pic.twitter.com/PkWXfQqtwp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 7, 2017
Lavrov also said Trump accepted Putin’s denial of election meddling, going against the conclusion of multiple U.S. intelligence agencies in a report in January.
Before the meeting, Schiff had rebuked Trump for earlier reports that the U.S. president would not mention Russia’s election interference, calling it a “historic mistake.”
He said Trump is “propagating his own personal fiction” by casting doubt on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
During a news conference Thursday with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Poland, Trump was asked whether he believes Russia was behind the meddling in the election.
“I think it could very well have been Russia but I think it could well have been other countries. I won’t be specific,” the president said. “I think a lot of people interfere. I think it’s been happening for a long time.”
Despite Tillerson’s insistence that Trump did push Russia on its election hacking, Schiff continued to question the U.S. president’s sincerity.
“Can we really expect the president to be more forthcoming with the Russian president if he is not willing to fully level with our own people on the same subject?” Schiff said.
Schiff was more complimentary of Tillerson’s confirmation of reports that Trump and Putin agreed to a cease-fire with Jordan in southwest Syria.
“This could be an important start,” Schiff said.
