There has been no shortage of historic summits in American history – but nothing like what is happening today.
No American president has ever appeared as a supplicant to a foreign power who attacked us – an attack that the intelligence community says is ongoing.
No American president has been so eager to placate a hostile foreign power. And no American president has been under a credible shadow of allegedly conspiring with a hostile foreign power.
No American president has so attacked our allies and heaped scorn on his fellow citizens while heaping praise on a hostile foreign power.
No American president has been so ill-prepared for diplomacy and statecraft and then insisted on handling negotiations with a hostile foreign power alone.
We do not know what was discussed. We will not be able to trust what President Trump or Putin say was discussed. Their words fail even the most minimum standards of political truth telling.
This is a historic summit indeed, but historic in terms of the damage it can (and likely already has done) to our nation and a democratic world order.