John Kerry: Trump ‘surrendered lock, stock and barrel’ to Putin’s deceptions

Former Secretary of State John Kerry offered a blistering criticism of President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, saying that Trump “surrendered lock, stock and barrel” to his Russian counterpart.

In a lengthy statement posted on Twitter, Kerry blasted Trump’s performance at a joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki on Monday, in which he decried the counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and cast doubt on whether Moscow interfered in the race at all.

“This President has surrendered lock, stock and barrel to President Putin’s deceptions about the attacks on America’s democracy,” Kerry said in the statement. “This is insanity.”

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— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) July 16, 2018

{mosads}

Trump’s comments at the news conference with Putin drew criticism from across the partisan spectrum, with Democrats and Republicans alike condemning the U.S. president’s unwillingness to say whether the Russians sought to interfere in the 2016 election, despite the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community.

Speaking in the Finnish capital, Trump acknowledged that top intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, had told him that Russia meddled in the election. But he also said that Putin firmly denied the allegation and that he saw no reason why Russia would interfere in the race.

“My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others,” Trump said. “They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin – he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

While Trump has repeatedly decried the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia, his comments on Monday were particularly unusual, having come just three days after a dozen Russian officials were indicted on charges of hacking Democratic servers during the 2016 campaign.

Kerry said that Trump’s behavior was indicative of a larger set of problems. 

“The problem isn’t Trump having a summit; it’s Trump having a policy that’s bad for America, bad for our allies, and only good for Vladimir Putin,” Kerry said, calling Trump’s behavior at the press conference “disgraceful.”