Republican congressman and former CIA officer says Trump is 'getting played by old KGB hands'

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 16 July 2018

After President Trump's shocking press conference alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, national security experts and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have sounded the alarm on Trump's apparent choice to believe Putin over America's own intelligence agencies. While acknowledging that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, among other U.S. security experts, informed him that Russia was responsible for the interference in the 2016 election, Trump sided with Putin, whom he said told him "it's not Russia."

Trump's comments prompted fierce blowback, including a fiery statement from Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who said — among other jaw-dropping condemnations — that "no prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant." Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican congressman from Texas and former CIA officer, had an explanation for Trump's conduct that was possibly even less flattering: "I never would have thought that the U.S. president would become one of the ones getting played by old KGB hands," Hurd wrote.

Hurd additionally declared that "the president is wrong. Russia interfered in the 2016 election and seeks to undermine our democracy." While Putin disputed Russia's role in the meddling, he did take the occasion of the press conference to remind everyone that he was a highly trained KBG officer before becoming Russia's president.