It’s just another day at the White House when Donald Trump paints a call to congratulate Vladimir Putin as just your run of the mill conversation. Sure the two touched on a few topics, but they probably aren’t the ones you would think should take priority.
President Trump says he congratulated Vladimir Putin on winning the Russian presidential election. Trump also spoke of a possible meeting with the Russian President https://t.co/gfLcnBB2hz pic.twitter.com/PTH6Bjnzsi
— CNN (@CNN) March 20, 2018
Senator John McCain isn’t mincing words today when it comes to his thoughts about the call.
An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election. https://t.co/lcQTBi7CA1
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) March 20, 2018
In today’s White House briefing Sarah Sanders responded to McCain’s tweet, but wouldn’t say whether Trump believed this was a “sham election.”
Sarah Sanders on McCain statement that Trump "insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote" with Putin call:
"The president once again has maintained that it is important to have a dialogue with Russia so that we can share on some areas of shared interest." pic.twitter.com/2jaLucjPjY
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) March 20, 2018
Guess what else apparently didn’t come up during Trump’s call to Putin? No talk about Russia meddling in US elections and apparently no dialogue about the recent nerve agent poisoning in the UK.
Reporter: Did the recent poisoing in the U.K. come up today's Trump-Putin call?
Press Sec. Sanders: "I don't believe that was discussed in today's call." pic.twitter.com/FnRHlkK8Ye
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 20, 2018
Trump says he had a very good call with Putin, without realizing the multitude of problems with that statement and what he chose not to cover like interfering in our election and cyberattacks on our infrastructure. #PutinPuppet https://t.co/WGvun2dTTF
— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) March 20, 2018