The 12 most frightening reactions to Trump's disastrous summit in Russia



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It is, as you can guess, almost entirely negative and critical of Trump. But whose answer was the most frightening? – The one who made you say "sacred cow" (or something similar)?

With the help of the one and only Brenna Williams I collected the main statements on the Trump-Putin summit and classified them from the least scary to the most scary. (An interesting note from Brenna: Neither State Secretary Mike Pompeo nor Defense Secretary James Mattis has said anything about the Trump-Putin summit since its conclusion.)

12. Vice President Mike Pence: "President Donald Trump presents himself apologetically as a leader of the free world."

Not scary at all! Also, not really – at all – what the world saw in Trump-Putin's bail!

11. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "I think the Russians need to know that many of us fully understand what has happened in 2016, and that it's better never to breed again in 2018. "

and completely ignores Trump in his statement. Slight bonus points for the nuance "many of us understand perfectly what happened in 2016".

10. Bob Corker, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "I will not be sitting in the Senate chamber of the United States to challenge what happened to NATO, which went to Helsinki. "

the desire to be considered a leading Trump critic on foreign policy – that it is about Trump and what he did with Putin. In addition, Corker will retire in 2018, which is a kind of free shot for the Tennessee Senator.

9. The President of the House, Paul Ryan: "The President must understand that Russia is not our ally, there is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remain hostile to our most fundamental values ​​and ideals, and put an end to its vile attacks on democracy. "

This is just about as strong a statement as you'll see from Ryan. It clearly shows that Trump is wrong about the threat posed by Russia and blames Russia's "vile attacks on democracy". It's serious. Of course, Ryan retires at the end of this year and has much less to lose than McConnell, who remains for the next two years of Trump.

8. Richard Burr, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee: "I need to hear the President, without any coverage, saying that he believes that the Russians have interfered in our elections, I do not believe it. I have not heard it yet. "

Burr is not at the forefront of Trump's Republican critics – at the Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain – which makes his words here d & # 39; all the more significant. Remember that Burr's committee released its report on Russia and the 2016 elections earlier this month – concluding that Russia has actually mingled with elections in order to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. Presumably, these are the facts that Burr thinks Trump continues to flee.

7. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats : "We have clearly assessed our Russian interference in the 2016 elections and their ongoing and pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide objective, unabashed intelligence to the world.

Consider the background here: the boss of Coats – aka the US president – had just stood by Vladimir Putin and said he was not sure he believed the Russian president or his own intelligence community when he came to the 2016 election interfering. So that Coats issued a statement – without, apparently, running it by the White House – reiterating the belief from the intelligence community that Russia orchestrated a large-scale meddling campaign in the 2016 election. What Coats felt the need to do so, when you think about it, quite scary.

5. (Tie) Se Nate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: "D Is there anyone who believes that he was harder on Putin in secret? You can not assume anything from him. 39, other than that as weak as it was in public in front of President Putin, it was even worse in private, why did not he want someone in the room? "

5 (tie) Senate Democratic Intelligence Committee Ranking Mark Warner: "If the President was willing to dismiss US concerns in public, what the heck did he say in private?"

Schumer and Warner and scary – point here: If Trump was ready to make the "two parts do" dance with regard to Russian interference with the eyes of the world on him, what was the private conversation like of the two men? What adds to the burglar factor here, is that we will never really know it since Trump insisted on a one-on-one conversation with Putin, with only translators in the room. Which means we will never really know what was said – and what was not. We have to rely on two men who, in the past, have proven themselves to be unreliable narrators.

4. The Democrat Adam Schiff: "It was a staggering betrayal of the country."

He tells you how some of the quotes on the summit were terrifying. Schiff, a man who has access to much more information regarding the involvement of Russia in the last election, saying that Trump betrayed the country does not rank higher.

3. John Brennan, former director of the CIA : "Donald Trump's press conference in Helsinki exceeds the threshold of" high crimes and misdemeanors. "Republican patriots: Where are you ???"

The tweet of Brennan has become a rallying cry for Democrats and Liberals – and even some discontented Republicans in the aftermath of the summit. If the former director of the CIA said that, we must be in a really deep doo-doo continued the line of thinking. And there is no doubt that a former CIA chief typing the words "[Trump] is entirely in Putin's pocket" is scary. But Brennan's claim that Trump had committed a betrayal in his Putin bail seemed to be a stretch – and removed some of the spur of his other comments.

2. Nancy Pelos, Leader of the House Minority i : "The whole world witnessed the presence of President Trump in the presence of Putin, President Trump seemed clearly frightened in the presence of Putin. blackmail President Trump with "personally, politically or financially."

And that's it – the word "b". Pelosi comes right away and suggests that the president of Russia may well have "Kompromat" over the US president and is hanging over his head to get Trump to do what Putin wants. Holy moly.

1. Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper : "But more and more, I come to a conclusion after the performance of Helsinki and since then I really wonder if the Russians have anything on it."

Is there anyone who had long rejected – or at least very skeptical – the idea that the Russians could have "Kompromat" on Trump. And his mind is being changed by the way he saw Trump acting as president – including Monday in Helsinki. And before Trumpites screams that Clapper is a kind of liberal, let's remember that he served in the administrations of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. And, before Trump's presidency, he had never participated in anything close to partisan politics. S-C-A-R-Y.

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