[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 17, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4975-S4977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President:


[[Page S4976]]


  

       [Yesterday's summit] was one of the most disgraceful 
     performances by an American President in memory. The damage 
     inflicted by President Trump's naivety, egotism, false 
     equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to 
     calculate. . . . 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.
       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--

  Yesterday's press conference, actually--

     marks a recent low point in the history of the American 
     Presidency.
       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 
     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 . . . 
     in vain.

  Those are very strong words. People would say: Well, Chuck Schumer is 
the Democratic leader. Of course, he is going to criticize President 
Trump. But those strong, biting, and effective words are not mine. 
Those three paragraphs I quoted come from John McCain, who is probably 
the leading Republican expert on military security, national security, 
and foreign policy.
  When Senator McCain said that, it should be a clarion call to every 
Republican to not just speak up but to take action because the national 
security of America is in danger.
  I ask unanimous consent that Senator McCain's statement, in its 
entirety, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

    Senator John McCain Statement on President Trump's Meeting With 
                            President Putin

       ``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 naivete, 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.''

  Mr. SCHUMER. It is still difficult to comprehend what transpired 
yesterday in Helsinki. Because of his actions, it was one of the worst 
days for any President of the United States in recent memory. On 
foreign soil, President Trump said the United States was to blame for 
the state of the relationship between Russia and America.
  He trashed American intelligence and took the word of the KGB over 
the word of the men and women of the CIA. Can you believe it? Can you 
believe it? He said Russia's intelligence agency, which murders, 
steals, lies, and cheats, is better than ours. There is no rational 
explanation for an American President to do such a thing. It was the 
act of a man who seems incapable of distinguishing between his own 
narrow personal interests and the interests of America's national 
security.
  Can you imagine if President Kennedy believed Khrushchev when he said 
there were no missiles in Cuba? Can you imagine if President Reagan 
believed Gorbachev without verifying that the Soviet Union would reduce 
its missile stockpile? We would be living in a much different world 
than we are today. Thank God President Kennedy and President Reagan 
showed strength in the face of tyrants--but President Trump shows 
abject weakness and sycophancy.
  Let me explain to the President why he is being so strongly 
criticized when he embraced Putin's strong and powerful denial. The 
reason, President Trump, that you are being so criticized when you 
accept Putin's word is, Putin is a trained liar. He lies brazenly, 
shamelessly, and repeatedly about big things and small.
  Putin lied about the presence of Russian troops in Crimea. He lied 
about the Malaysian airplane being shot down by a Russian rocket. He 
lied about Russian athletes doping at the Olympics. He lied about 
Russian behavior in eastern Ukraine. He lied about Assad's use of 
chemical weapons. He lied about interference in the Brexit vote. Just 
last week, he lied about the Kremlin's involvement in a recent nerve 
agent attack in the United Kingdom.
  Yet when President Putin gives President Trump a ``strong and 
powerful denial'' that he didn't meddle in our elections, President 
Trump immediately accepts Putin's word over the considered judgment of 
America's dedicated intelligence professionals. It is almost as if 
Donald Trump is embracing Putin's needs. I am ashamed of it, and every 
American should be. No previous President would be that naive or that 
weak. No serious leader would allow themselves to be taken in so 
easily.
  The only person with cause to celebrate is Vladimir Putin. Putin got 
to stand on the stage with an American President who refused to hold 
him accountable for anything. He watched President Trump careen through 
Europe, carrying out Putin's dream agenda--torching old alliances, 
interfering in the domestic affairs of the United Kingdom, weakening 
NATO and American power in the region. Putin skated through a bilateral 
summit and press conference without facing any consequences for 
deliberately meddling in our elections. Putin could not have scripted a 
better result.
  I am from Brooklyn. If we learned anything, we learned one thing 
there: When there is a bully around, as Putin is, you show strength. 
President Trump showed abject weakness. Do you know what that means? 
The bully will continue to take advantage of it. If Donald Trump was 
such an easy mark in Helsinki, President Putin will realize he is an 
easy mark elsewhere.
  The behavior of the President is just inexplicable. Everyone in the 
United States is scratching their heads. There seems to be no rational 
explanation for President Trump's behavior, and so millions of 
Americans are left wondering if Putin indeed has something over the 
President. That is the most logical explanation of the President's 
bizarre and weak behavior so deleterious to American interests.
  If there is another credible explanation for why President Trump 
behaved the way he did, it would behoove the President to let the 
American people in on it; otherwise, so many Americans are going to 
continue to wonder, does President Putin have something over President 
Trump that makes the President behave in such a way that hurts our 
country so?
  We know the President doesn't like to prepare much, but even the most 
basic preparation would lead a President away from the erratic behavior 
we saw yesterday. The truth is, the summit yesterday was like an x-ray 
machine, revealing that ``America First'' is really just ``Trump 
First,'' no matter what it means for the country he is sworn to defend 
from enemies foreign and domestic.

[[Page S4977]]

  So the question looms: What will the Senate do in response? What will 
my Republican colleagues do in response? A few of them have echoed 
Senator McCain's sentiments, and they deserve recognition for that, but 
those Senators who are not John McCain, who are here in the Senate 
wielding an immense power to shape events, I say to them, words are not 
enough. Our response to the debasement of American interests before a 
foreign adversary demands a response, not just in word but in deed. Our 
Republican colleagues cannot just talk the talk--some of them have done 
that, most haven't--but, as a body, they need to walk the walk. The 
American people are demanding it.

  Our country needs to see Republicans in the Senate and the Republican 
Party stand up and show through action that unlike our President, they 
will not tolerate Russian aggression or accept Putin's lies. They need 
to act in the spirit of Ronald Reagan, not in the spirit of Donald 
Trump. Too often, when the President goes off the reservation, the 
Republican Party has lightly rebuked his behavior and waited for 
everyone to move on. Given the crisis, given Trump's horrible actions, 
that is not good enough. Our Republican colleagues cannot just go tsk-
tsk. They must act if they want to help America.
  Yesterday, I outlined four things we could do immediately in response 
to the President's disastrous summit. Let me repeat them and add a 
fifth.
  First, ratchet up sanctions on Russia, not water them down. The 
sanctions we passed 98 to 2 have not even been fully implemented. Some 
in the House now want to reduce those sanctions. We need to strengthen 
them.
  Second, and very importantly--probably most importantly--our 
Republican colleagues need to join us in demanding testimony from the 
President's national security team that was in Helsinki, and we need to 
do that immediately. We need hearings as soon as possible to assess 
what President Trump might have committed to President Putin in secret. 
President Trump's public statements were alarming enough. The Senate 
needs to know what happened behind closed doors. Does anyone believe he 
was tougher on Putin in secret? You can't assume anything but that as 
weak as he was in public before President Putin, he was even worse in 
private. Why else did he not want anyone in the room?
  President Trump and President Putin met one-on-one behind closed 
doors for nearly 2 hours. Where are the notes from the meeting? What 
did the President agree to? Was Secretary Pompeo briefed afterward on 
what happened? Were any other members of the President's team briefed? 
The American people need to know what is happening. The American people 
deserve to know what is happening. It is our security at risk.
  I am calling on Leader McConnell and his leadership team to 
immediately request a hearing with Secretary of State Pompeo and the 
rest of the President's national security team from Helsinki so we can 
find out what the heck happened there--the explanation for what 
happened openly, and even more importantly, what happened in that 
meeting behind closed doors.
  Third, our Republican friends must end the attacks on the Department 
of Justice, the FBI, and the special counsel. Those have mainly 
emanated from a small group in the House.
  Given the indictments, given the indictment yesterday, not from 
Mueller but from mainline Justice, we have to let this investigation go 
forward. President Trump's actions yesterday lead many more Americans 
to suspect that something was amiss; that there may have been 
collusion. What else would explain President Trump's actions and 
protestations in a foreign country?
  We need to end these attacks and let the investigation proceed 
unimpeded and encourage the President to sit down for an interview with 
Mueller.
  Fourth, the President must insist on the extradition of the 12 
Russians recently indicted for election interference. In one of the 
more bizarre of many bizarre incidents yesterday, Putin suggested that 
Americans come and interview the Russians in Russia or actually watch 
as Russian agents interview the Russians in Russia. Is Russia known for 
a free and open judicial system? Is Russia known for the rule of law? 
Of course not. It was an absurd suggestion. Any other President would 
have rejected it out of hand.
  We need to bring them here, and the President, to represent the honor 
and the strength of the United States--something he has failed to do 
thus far--needs to demand it.
  Finally, election security. Our elections are at risk. We have now 
had indictments of Russians interfering in the 2016 elections. Everyone 
in America, except Donald Trump, admits that happened--Democrats and 
Republicans, Speaker Ryan, Leader McConnell--that Russia tried to 
interfere and interfere, most everyone believes, on President Trump's 
behalf. Why? Well, we heard Putin's explanation.
  We can't have that happen again. We must move election security 
legislation immediately.
  To its credit, in a bipartisan way, this Chamber and the other put 
$380 million in the last omnibus for election security, but there is 
very fine legislation. One is sponsored by Senator Klobuchar, and she 
has worked with some of the Republicans on that. Another is sponsored 
by Senator Chris Van Hollen. I believe Senator Rubio is a cosponsor of 
that. We need to move that legislation--hopefully, with bipartisan 
support--quickly.
  These are five simple things we can do together, Democrats and 
Republicans.
  Now, yesterday, I saw my good friend--I see him sitting here--Senator 
Cornyn say that we have done most of these things already. I wish it 
were so. It isn't. We haven't done any of it. Leader McConnell has not 
called for hearings to bring Secretary Pompeo and others here. We have 
not increased sanctions, which we should do. In fact, there is a move 
in the House to decrease them. We have not asked the President to 
demand extradition of the Russians. We have not urged some Republicans, 
particularly in the House, to stop interfering with the Mueller 
investigation. We haven't done any of the four items I mentioned 
yesterday or the fifth I mentioned today. I hope Senator Cornyn and 
others will lead the charge and help us get those done, in a bipartisan 
way, for the sake of this wonderful and great country.
  The bottom line is that we need to act. A few statements will not 
change President Trump's behavior and will not stop President Putin 
from continuing to make a mess of our alliances around the world and 
our elections here in America. Action is required. The eyes of America 
are on the Republicans in the Senate to join us in the actions I have 
outlined or other actions they might feel appropriate.

                          ____________________