Schumer slams Trump for 'grave dereliction of duty' in Putin meeting

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published 7 July 2017

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday slammed President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for failing to adequately address Russia's election meddling in their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though Trump did raise the topic during his Friday meeting with Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Trump took Putin's word that Russia did not interfere in the U.S. presidential election. The U.S. intelligence community has reached the conclusion that Russia did interfere.

Schumer contended that Trump not only had an "obligation" to bring up the issue — he had "an equal obligation to take the word of our intelligence community rather than that of the Russian president." "To give equal credence to the findings of the American intelligence community and the assertion by Mr. Putin is a grave dereliction of duty and will only encourage Russia to further interfere in our elections in the future," Schumer said in a statement.

Schumer also made clear that he does not think the decision to "'agree to disagree' is an acceptable conclusion." "For Secretary Tillerson to say this issue will remain unresolved is disgraceful," Schumer said.