Confronted with a week’s worth of criticism over the president’s press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday attempted to assuage a panel of angry lawmakers about the president’s stance on Russia.
Lawmakers criticized President Donald Trump after his press conference with Putin last Monday. During the appearance, Trump cast doubt on the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian meddling and struck a conciliatory tone as he blamed both the U.S. and Russia for a downturn in relations rather than criticizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea or its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Pompeo confidently told lawmakers on the Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday afternoon that the president accepts that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
“He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened. I know. I briefed him on it for over a year,” he said. “This is perfectly clear to me personally. I am also certain he deeply respects the difficult and dangerous work that our patriots in the intelligence community do every single day.”
When Trump was asked that Monday who he believes on election interference, his intelligence community or Putin, he said: “My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
The next day the president said that he misspoke. “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place,” he said. “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there. But there was no collusion.” Days later, Trump again appeared to describe election interference as a “big hoax.” The White House said he was referring to claims of collusion.
Asked also in Helsinki whether he holds Russia responsible for anything in particular when it comes to strained relations with the U.S., Trump said, “I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish.” He especially criticized special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation.
But Pompeo said Wednesday that at the summit the U.S. “made clear that the ball is in Russia’s court” when it comes to improving relations.
“We defended America’s fundamental strategic interests in Syria and Ukraine,” he continued. “I personally made clear to the Russians there will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes.”
Pompeo then listed a number of actions that the administration has taken against the Kremlin, including providing Ukraine with lethal defensive aid, enacting dozens of sanctions on Russian entities, and expelling 60 Russian spies.
Later, responding to criticism from committee chairman Bob Corker about the president’s public statements, Pompeo pointed to the administration’s actions and said that they are all approved by the president.
“Somehow there’s this idea that this administration is free-floating. This is President Trump’s administration, make no mistake who is fully in charge of this and who is directing each of these activities,” he said, earlier elaborating, “Every sanction that was put in place was signed off by the president of the United States, every spy that was removed was directed by the president of the United States.”
News reports have indicated otherwise.
The secretary began and ended his opening statement with Russia. He opened by noting the administration’s newly released ‘Crimea Declaration,’ which calls on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea, illegally annexed in 2014.
“There will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine,” he said. “This Crimea Declaration formalizes United States policy of non-recognition.”
Pompeo also made clear that the president wants to improve relations with Russia, as Trump himself has often said.
“He strongly believes that now is the time for direct communication in our relationship in order to make clear to President Putin there is the possibility, however remote it might be, to reverse the negative course of our relationship,” the secretary said. “Otherwise, the administration will continue imposing tough actions against Russia in response to its malign activities.”
He described the administration’s strategy broadly as one that increases the “cost of aggression until Vladimir Putin chooses a less confrontational foreign policy,” while also “keeping the door open for dialogue.”
