President Trump on Monday dropped another bomb on the Republicans’ shaky midterm election prospects with a bizarre joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin that followed private bilateral talks in Helsinki.
Trump aligned himself with a defiant Putin and against U.S. intelligence agencies’ consensus assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election — and largely blamed the U.S. for Washington’s long-strained relationship with Moscow. The president’s performance was roundly condemned by Republicans in Congress, and sparked fresh anxiety about November.
Senior Republican strategists fretted that the event would cast a brighter spotlight on the federal investigation into Russian meddling, souring more voters on Trump and distracting attention from a thriving economy that the GOP is betting on to preserve their congressional majorities.
“The politics of this is a disaster. Any day that the president, and then the media, is talking about Russia, Putin or the investigation, is a bad day. So, it’s hard to imagine a worse event for the optics and message than the summit,” a Republican consultant said, requesting anonymity in order to criticize Trump.
“Is there an independent, swing voter in the country who would say: ‘Yeah, I really think Putin is telling the truth and the U.S. Department of Justice is the real problem?’” added a top aide to a House Republican who is girding for a tough race this fall.
Republicans, in an avalanche of critical statements, focused on the troubling national security and geopolitical implications of Trump’s remarks. The backlash, almost universal, came from party leaders in the House and Senate as well as several in the rank-and-file members, beyond those who are retiring, who tend to avoid scolding the president.
[Related: CNN’s Anderson Cooper slams Trump’s performance in front of Putin as ‘disgraceful’]
They rebutted Trump’s claims that the policies and actions pursued by Russia and the U.S. are morally equivalent, a particularly galling comparison to draw with an autocratic adversary. Republicans also refuted Trump’s suggestion, made 72 hours after the Justice Department indicted a dozen Russian intelligence operatives, that Putin told the truth when he denied that Moscow meddled in 2016.
Trump appeared to try and clean up the controversy with a tweet posted from Air Force One, as he was en route back to Washington from Helsinki: “As I said today and many times before, ‘I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.’ However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along!”
But the president’s initial words were consistent with the usual affection he expresses for Putin, granted Trump’s policies have tended tougher than his rhetoric. But uttered on the global stage, during a news conference on foreign soil, Trump’s comments left Republicans, most of whom hail from the party’s traditional hawkish wing, in a state of frustrated disbelief.
“As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am deeply troubled by President Trump’s defense of Putin against the intelligence agencies of the U.S. & his suggestion of moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia. Russia poses a grave threat to our national security,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, tweeted.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., a lead author of sanctions legislation to constrain American foes like Russia and North Korea, another actor Trump has sought detente with, offered his own blistering shot at the president.
“I encourage the administration to avoid the mistakes of past administrations in normalizing relations with Russia at zero cost to Putin and his regime,” Gardner said. “The only ‘reset’ we can have with Russia is when it completely reverses course and begins to act in accordance with civilized norms and international law. Nothing should change as of today — Putin’s Russia is not a friend to the United States.”
Yet it was notable that Gardner, and several other Republicans who issued cutting statements, declined to mention Trump by name. He is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, and could be sensitive about antagonizing the president and fueling an intraparty spat that plays out on social media less than four months before Election Day.
The Republican base is in Trump’s corner, and there was no immediate indication that this crucial voting bloc was cooling toward the president because of what he said in Helsinki after the summit-style meeting he held with Putin.
Senate Republicans are targeting Democratic incumbents in a handful of red states where Trump is popular, and Gardner might have been wary about depressing grassroots support for his candidates if his statement appeared too critical of the president, personally.
Indeed, some GOP strategists warned that, as politically damaging as the Helsinki press conference could be to the party’s midterm elections effort, Republicans would only make it worse by attacking the president personally.
“Disagreeing with the president costs you nothing with your base — attacking the president does,” a veteran campaign consultant said. “Members and candidates just need to come out and say that they believe Russia is no friend of the United States and we need to stay vigilant of Russian aggression at home and abroad.”
If there’s a price to pay for Republicans, some might look for signs in two House races in the multiple contests where the Democratic Party is fielding military veterans, including two races with candidates who formerly worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
In Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Republican Rep. Dave Brat is facing Democrat Abigail Spanberger in November. In Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, Elissa Slotkin is running for the Democratic nomination and the right to challenge Republican Rep. Mike Bishop.
“People too often mistake Democrats not talking about Russia as ‘Russia doesn’t matter’ in the midterms,” a national Democratic strategist said. “His whole presidency is a dark cloud hanging over their heads and it’s disastrous things like today that energize the Democratic base.”
