Many Republicans, including our own delegation, are none too pleased with President Trump’s comments following his Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Given our history with the former communist nation, it’s not surprising for Republicans to be critical of Putin or doubt his word about everything except the weather.
They certainly don’t believe Putin when he says Russia did not try and meddle in our 2016 elections.
Improving relations with Russia is one thing, but it appears Trump went overboard in his foreign diplomacy effort when he said he doesn’t “see any reason why it would be” Russia who did the meddling.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman says Trump shouldn’t have taken Putin’s word at face value, let alone trust Kremlin rhetoric over U.S. intelligence.
“Putin’s Russia isn’t our friend, won’t be an ally and most certainly won’t stop their rogue behavior against our country, our allies and our interests,” Coffman said in a statement.
Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton says there is ample evidence Russia meddled in our elections, and told Trump to hold Russia and Putin responsible.
“Russia has repeatedly violated international law, shown disregard for national sovereignty, engaged in human rights abuses, propped up state sponsors of terror, and fueled global instability,” said Tipton.
Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is sponsoring legislation ordering the State Department to determine whether Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terror.
“I encourage the administration to avoid the mistakes of past administrations in normalizing relations with Russia at zero cost to Putin and his regime. 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.”
Trump is guilty of bad diplomacy, but certainly not treason as some Democrats are screaming.
Ironically, until Trump became president, Democrats were totally enamored with Russia and its communist history.
We think Hell would freeze over before Russia interfered with an American election in order to elect any Republican. It’s more likely they were trying to support like-minded socialist Bernie Sanders over the eventual Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.