Sen. Lindsey Graham says Trump’s tough talk “not working” on Putin

Either way, it’s a breathtaking abuse of the office of the president.

US officials have not described any substantial agreements and have given few details about talks at the summit, which included a one-on-one meeting with only interpreters present, leaving critics of Trump concerned that he may have made unwise deals.

“You know, if I were sitting in the Pentagon where I spent a lot of time, I would be wondering what in the way of military operations or capabilities did he perhaps unknowingly compromise or give up”, Clapper continued.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that Trump was “obviously” referring to allegations of collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian agents. Putin seemed astonished that he was receiving bouquets all the way and he was not called upon to make any concessions.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said the documents detail “just why the Federal Bureau of Investigation was so concerned that Carter Page might be acting as an agent of a foreign power”. Putin gave no concessions and it appeared that none was sought. The Trump-Putin meeting is still shrouded in secrecy.

Most of the times when reporters have shouted questions to him in recent days, he has declined to answer.

Under pressure from Congress, which a year ago passed a tough sanctions law targeting Russia, the US Treasury in April imposed sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs for election meddling and “malign” activities. Over the weekend, Trump zeroed in on release of a foreign intelligence search warrant regarding campaign aide Carter Page, claiming is it is evidence that the Barack Obama administration “spied” on his campaign using information from a politically motivated “dossier” of information about Trump and the Russians. But he said election meddling should not be tolerated from any country.

Blaming reporters, of course, is far from a novel strategy for Trump.

Talking to Putin about matters such as the civil war in Syria, Gowdy said, “is very different from issuing an invitation”.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States told the media in Moscow on Wednesday that Trump and Putin had reached several “verbal agreements” on weapons treaties and Syria, but US officials are still scrambling to determine what those agreements might have been.

“Mainstream media attempted to twist the events of the Helsinki summit to continue its anti-Trump narrative”. “He thinks the way to make Russian Federation stronger is to weaken America and as long as we’re clear about it, I think it’s important that the nations speak to one another and that our leaders speak to one another”. “The Helsinki meeting was an opportunity to see where the relationship could go in the future”.

That missive came after a week of walk backs and bipartisan criticism over his handling of last week’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A State Department spokesperson dismissed talk of “agreements” and said Wednesday that there were three “modest” takeaways from the meeting “that we are now assessing”.