The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling the summit an “undeserved reward” for the Russian leader.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY, said in a statement that Trump “literally rolling out the red carpet” for Putin on American soil legitimized Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and “whitewashed Putin’s war crimes.”
Meeks said the meeting took place without Ukraine present and with no concessions from Russia, which he noted has continued to bomb Ukrainian schools and hospitals and abduct children.“
President Trump should have pressured Putin by imposing crushing sanctions on his war machine and providing Ukraine with the tools it needs to defend itself,” Meeks said.
The congressman also implored his Republican colleagues to “recapture the bipartisanship they once showed” in supporting Ukraine and to pass new sanctions and provide new assistance to the country.
The New York Democrat has been particularly vocal recently about Trump’s order to deploy the National Guard to oversee the streets of Washington, D.C.