Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal put Donald Trump on blast on Thursday for rolling out the red carpet for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Blumenthal said by that by inviting him to Washington for another meeting, Trump is essentially giving a nod of approval to a criminal who waged a cyberattack on American democracy.
He also slammed the president for planning a second meeting before he even cleaned up the mess from the first one.
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.@SenBlumenthal slams Trump for inviting Putin to come to Washington. #ctl #p2 #Trump #Putin #Russia pic.twitter.com/TMAQHJPPHH
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) July 20, 2018
The Connecticut Democrat said:
Inviting Putin to come here, when you look at that indictment against 12 Russian spies directed by Putin himself to attack this country makes him an alleged criminal. And the president of the United States is inviting him to the White House, even before we have finished the damage control from that first meeting.
Trump is cozying up to a criminalÂ
Last week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of a dozen Russian military officers.
As Sen. Blumenthal pointed out, these crimes against the United States were directed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in an effort to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.
By welcoming Putin to the White House, Trump is giving the presidential seal of approval to a man who authorized an attack on the United States of America.
As Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said earlier, “You don’t invite the burglar to dinner … you put in a home security system.”
All of this – Trump’s disaster in Helsinki, his spin game afterward, his repeated unwillingness to accept intelligence community findings, his refusal to immediately reject handing over Americans to Russia and, now, his invitation for Putin to come to Washington – is a stunning betrayal of the country Trump is supposed to be leading.
Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention: Trump is deeply in the pocket of the man who installed him to the presidency.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
