In a display of unity more patriotic than bipartisan, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle responded critically to President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed published in the New York Times Thursday.
The opinion piece was a lobbying effort to encourage American support for Russia’s proposed solution to the crisis in Syria. Putin’s critique of American exceptionalism in the op-ed, however — in which he wrote, “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation” — garnered some of the harshest pushback.
“Russia offers a stark contrast as to why America is exceptional,” Carney said during the daily White House press briefing. “Unlike Russia, the United States stands up for democratic values and human rights around the world.
Carney added that there was “irony” in the placement of Putin’s op-ed in an American newspaper, given the United States’ strong First Amendment traditions.
Elsewhere in the nation’s capital, House leaders were uniformly critical of Putin’s written appeal.
House Speaker John Boehner said that he was “insulted”, though he was selective with his words beyond that, citing his respect for the role of the president in conducting foreign policy.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was more elaborate.
“Vladimir Putin is not in a strong constitutional democracy where people have their say, so he comes here and has his say, but, it has to have some fidelity to fact,” she said.
Pelosi also disagreed with Putin’s dinging of American exceptionalism, calling the United States simply “an exceptional country.”
