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#TRAITOR Trends After Trump's Meeting With Putin

by Valerie Williams
Image via Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Trump refused to stand up to Putin during press conference

President Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin held a joint press conference today after a one-on-one meeting between the two leaders. The result? A press conference being called “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

By a Republican senator.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released a statement shortly after the press conference ended. In it, he denounces Trump and all but calls him a traitor to the American people. “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naivete, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate,” he says. “But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.”

McCain says, “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.”

McCain had frank words for Trump’s manner toward a dangerous man who most acknowledge to be a cruel and ruthless dictator. “These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.”

He wraps his statement with a harsh rebuke for Trump. “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed.”

McCain was far from the only American to condemn Trump’s behavior toward Putin, whom he refused to criticize for what our intelligence agencies are calling a concerted effort to interfere with and possibly alter the results of the 2016 presidential election. In advance of today’s summit with Putin, Trump said in regard to Russia’s tampering with our election, “All I can do is say, ‘Did you?’ And, ‘Don’t do it again.’ But he may deny it.” And now, social media is blowing up with politicians and citizens alike who are simply aghast at Trump’s behavior.

Keep in mind that Trump refused to stand up to Putin or condemn him in any way just days after Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian spies for their efforts at tampering with our election in 2016. Even Fox News, notorious for being a Trump/GOP propaganda machine, came out against the president’s performance at the press conference.

It’s hard to know where America even goes from here. With Republicans refusing to impeach Trump or speak out against his traitorous actions, we’re left wondering what happens next. In the meantime, we go to sleep at night knowing that this is how the leader of the free world thinks.