Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) slammed President Trump on Saturday for staying silent after Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Russian minority groups, including Jews, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
“Repulsive Putin remark deserves to be denounced, soundly and promptly, by world leaders. Why is Trump silent? Intolerance is intolerable,” Blumenthal tweeted.
Putin suggested in an NBC interview that Russian citizens from different ethnic background could be behind the 2016 U.S. election interference.
“Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked,” Putin said.
“Maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card, maybe the U.S. paid them for this. How can you know that? I do not know, either,” he added.
The American Jewish Committee quickly condemned Putin’s comments and urged him to clarify his comments.
“President Putin suggesting that Russian Federation minorities, be they Ukrainian, Tatar, or Jewish, were behind U.S. election meddling is eerily reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the group wrote on Twitter, referring to an anti-Semitic document originating in Russia in the early 20th century.
Putin also told NBC he “couldn’t care less” if Russians had interfered in the U.S. presidential election.
“So what if they’re Russians?” Putin asked. “There are 146 million Russians. So what? … I don’t care. I couldn’t care less … They do not represent the interests of the Russian state.”
Special Counsel Robert Mueller in February indicted 13 Russians and three Russian groups for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.