With a few prominent exceptions, Republicans mostly avoided directly criticizing President Trump on Monday after he seemed to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pass on the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Most Republicans took their cues from the two top GOP congressional leaders, who avoided any pointed criticism of Trump after he cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia tried to sway the vote.
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., carefully chided Trump and noted the intelligence community and Congress have determined Russia meddled in our election and continues to try to undermine the U.S.
“The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” Ryan said in a statement.
Across the Capitol, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also declined to specifically call out Trump.
“I’ve said a number of times and I’ll say it again,” McConnell told a group of reporters. “The Russians are not our friends and I entirely believe the assessment of our intelligence community.”
Both Congress and the director of national intelligence have concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election, and that assessment has been widely accepted in Congress. And on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments of 12 Russian officers for hacking a computer server at the Democratic National Committee.
But Trump seemed to back Putin’s claim that the Russian government was never involved.
“He just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said, referring to Putin’s defense against meddling accusations. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” Trump then demanded to see the server the DNC said was hacked by Russians as well as Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails.
Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, came close to questioning Trump’s remarks by saying he thinks Trump is conflating accusations that he personally colluded with Russians to win the election with the charges of Russia meddling in general.
When asked if Trump represented the United States positively, Cornyn said, “He’s president of the United States and he’s the choice of the voters, and like I said, he’s conflated some issues and he should keep those issues separate.”
But Cornyn also said Trump had a delicate task of keeping open a relationship with a critical world leader who happens to also want to do harm to the United States.
“Engaging with someone, even as evil as Putin, is necessary,” Cornyn said.
Most GOP lawmakers took an indirect route in opposing Trump’s comments, which the president made during a joint press conference with Putin that followed a private meeting between the two leaders.
Trump’s remarks enraged Democrats as well as several prominent Republicans, many of them already at odds with Trump.
“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,” tweeted Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who is retiring and has long criticized Trump. “This is shameful.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accused Trump of failing to stand up to Putin, who McCain particularly despises.
“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory,” McCain said. “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naivete, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.”
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., called Trump’s statement about both countries bearing blame “bizarre and flat-out wrong” and said Trump gave Putin “a propaganda win he desperately needs.”
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, offered measured criticism of the Trump-Putin summit and found a middle ground by saying Trump could have been tougher.
“U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed Russia’s actions, and the evidence is plentiful,” Goodlatte, who is retiring, said. “Today’s summit was an opportunity to forcefully address this growing threat directly with President Putin. I am dismayed that we did not see that.”
Al Weaver contributed to this report.
