The meeting between President Putin and myself was a great success, except in the Fake News Media!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018
Nope. Trump screwed-up so badly, so egregiously, so inexplicably, that now the word ‘treason’ in the air.
And, then, this non sequitur moments later.
The Democrats want to abolish ICE, which will mean more crime in our country. I want to give ICE a big cheer! Vote Republican in November.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2018
I had a great meeting with NATO. They have paid $33 Billion more and will pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars more in the future, only because of me. NATO was weak, but now it is strong again (bad for Russia). The media only says I was rude to leaders, never mentions the money!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
Does Trump not know that his own press office released a video of the press conference? Nobody needs to ask what the New York Times or Washington Post or CNN is reporting; we can watch his sniveling obsequiousness courtesy of the White House.
Nothing Trump has done has so far cost him the support of the Evangelical Right, or the White Nationalists, or the neo-Nazis, or that amorphous cloud of malcontents who can’t fit in anywhere else, and I doubt very much that the humiliation in Helsinki will affect them at all. To the contrary, it’s likely that the Deplorable One-third will rally against the almost universal indignation of everybody else.
Many Republican officeholders, at least, are nervously backing-up, though probably not enough to jeopardize Trump’s hold on office. Now, we’re going to see what an ass-kissing pack of cowards they actually are as they try to straddle an adoring base and global revulsion.
Such behavior by an American president is so perverse, so contrary to American interests and values, that it leads to only one conclusion: Donald Trump is either an asset of Russian intelligence or really enjoys playing one on TV.
Everything that happened in Helsinki today only reinforces that conclusion. My fellow Americans, we are in trouble and we have some big decisions to make today. This was a historic moment in the entire history of the United States.
There is overwhelming evidence that our president, for the first time in our history, is deliberately or through gross negligence or because of his own twisted personality engaged in treasonous behavior — behavior that violates his oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Trump vacated that oath today, and Republicans can no longer run and hide from that fact.
Trump’s bad character, inferior management skills, abusive temperament and demagogic style were all in plain sight before the election. I don’t know that anybody could have predicted there would be a strong prima facie case for treason a mere 18-months into his administration, but I have a difficult time accepting that anybody, anywhere, actually believed that Trump would lead America to the sunlit uplands of the City on the Hill.
More realistically, I believe a lot of Americans were so eager to stick a finger in the eye of the accomplished people they despise, the people comfortable with modernity, that they didn’t stop to ask themselves what would happen once The Donald had broken everything. Now we know and, Yes, we are in trouble.
Today’s press conference in #Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.
My full statement on the #HelsinkiSummit: https://t.co/lApjctZyZl
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 16, 2018
McCain’s full statement:
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. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.
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.
It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. 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.
Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.
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. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.
There are only two possibilities: Donald Trump is stupid and a coward, or Donald Trump is a traitor.
