Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) issued a harsh rebuke of President Trump ’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he thinks “something…
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) issued a harsh rebuke of President Trump ’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he thinks “something is not right” with the situation.
Amash, a frequent critic of Trump, said in a series of tweets that while he was a strong supporter of Trump and Putin meeting, he thinks the summit “did just the opposite” of bringing the two nations closer.
“The impression it left on me, a strong supporter of the meeting, is that ‘something is not right here,’” Amash tweeted. “The president went out of his way to appear subordinate. He spoke more like the head of a vassal state.”
„Perhaps it was just the president showing insecurity, once again, over the legitimacy of his election,“ he added. „Perhaps it was a sign of a more troubling entanglement with Putin. Whatever the case, the press conference was counterproductive to the goal of improving relations.“
Amash also hit Trump for attempting to walk back his remarks.
“Oddly, it took him more than a day to do so,” Amash said. “One wonders why the White House didn’t act more quickly if it were simply a misstatement.”
Amash’s comments follow critics who have suggested that Trump’s performance indicated that Putin has compromising information on the US president. The theory has been floated throughout Trump’s presidency.
In his Twitter thread, Amash also called on his fellow libertarians to refrain from “pushing demagoguery and tribalism” by saying that critics of the Trump-Putin conference are against diplomacy.
“To suggest that anyone critical of the president’s conduct opposes diplomacy is to employ a strawman argument,” the lawmaker wrote. “It’s virtue signaling, not libertarianism.”
