Dan Broadbent
WASHINGTON, DC – After an unprecedented summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, members of Congress have taken to Twitter to express their utter outrage with how President Donald Trump handled the Russian autocrat.
Critics of Trump were quick to condemn him for what seemed to be a lack of support in the United States’ own intelligence community. Speaking at a joint press conference with Putin, Trump said:
The whole concept of that [election interference] came up… as a reason why the Democrats lost an election which, frankly, they should have been able to win… Dan Coats came to me and some others saying they think it’s Russia. I have president Putin, he just said it is not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.
Although Trump has subsequently stated that he misspoke at the summit, and actually meant to say “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be,” his Congressional critics were quite ubiquitous.
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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Twitter:
Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning … This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves.
Republican Senator John McCain said:
Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate … The summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said:
The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally. There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.
And Republican Senator Jeff Flake, on Twitter, said:
I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.
Wow! Such on-the-nose gripes and whimpers
It seemed as though conservatives couldn’t help but condemn our president’s actions – or lack thereof.
Thankfully, this entire debacle is likely to blow over soon, and we will quickly forget it ever even happened. Just like his attempt to ban transgender troops from serving in the military, how he’s failed to do anything to address the growing problem of gun violence, how he endorsed a known pedophile (Roy Moore) in a special election, banned all Muslims from entering the United States for a weekend, left the Paris Climate Accord, and how he looked directly at the goddamn sun during a solar eclipse.
It’s so wonderful that we live in a time where those in positions of authority are seldom held responsible. It makes me wonder what would possibly happen if conservatives in Congress ever realized that they didn’t have to adhere to their tribalistic ways and actually followed up their words with action. Who knows what they could do?
Hopefully that day never comes.
Our Congressional representatives know best. They know we love their #ThoughtsAndPrayers after a preventable tragedy, so they know we will also take comfort in the steady stream of their #GripesAndGrumbles about Trump.
