NATION/WORLD
Saturday, June 29, 2019
East Oregonian
A11
Like old pals, Trump, Putin make light of election meddling
By JONATHAN LEMIRE
AND ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
OSAKA, Japan — Smil-
ing together on a global stage,
Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin cheerfully dismissed
Russian interference in U.S.
elections, shared their con-
tempt for the world’s news
media and generally fl aunted
their personal bond on Friday.
That was one day after the
Russian leader praised the
president of the United States
for his nationalist world views
and vigorously declared the
days of the West’s liberals are
dying if not already dead.
For some time, Trump has
defi ed the once-entrenched
Republican distrust if not out-
right hatred of the powerful
nation at the heart of the for-
mer Soviet Union. But Fri-
day’s joint appearance seemed
to go even further.
As the two leaders sat
down for their fi rst meeting in
nearly a year, a reporter asked
Trump if he would warn Putin
not to meddle in America’s
upcoming 2020 election.
“Of course,” the presi-
dent replied. Then he turned
to Putin and facetiously said,
“Don’t meddle in the elec-
tion.” He playfully repeated
the request while pointing at
Putin, who laughed.
The exchange at the Group
of 20 summit in Osaka echoed
one of the defi ning moments
of Trump’s presidency from
a year ago in Helsinki, Fin-
land. There, Trump pointedly
did not admonish Putin about
election interference and did
not side with U.S. intelligence
agencies over his Russian
counterpart.
Putin disputes special
counsel Robert Mueller’s
conclusion that Russia inter-
fered in the 2016 U.S. elec-
tion to help Trump win. Putin
told the Financial Times this
week that it was “mythical
interference.”
“What happened in real-
ity? Mr. Trump looked into
his opponents’ attitude to him
and saw changes in American
society and he took advan-
tage of this,” Putin told the
newspaper.
Putin, who has high-
lighted populist movements in
Europe and America, praised
Trump for trying to stem the
fl ow of migrants and drugs
from Mexico and expressed
a view that liberalism — the
main political ideology in the
West since the end of World
War II — has outlived its
days.
“This liberal idea presup-
poses that nothing needs to
be done — that migrants can
kill, plunder and rape with
impunity because their rights
as migrants have to be pro-
tected,” Putin said, playing
into issues Trump is empha-
sizing in his re-election
campaign.
“The liberal idea has
become obsolete,” he said in
the interview.
The two leaders also
bonded Friday over their
mutual disdain for “fake
news.”
Trump eyed the report-
ers at a photo opportunity
with the Russian leader and
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian
President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting on the
sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on Friday.
told him, “Get rid of them,
fake news. You don’t have the
problem in Russia. We have it;
you don’t have it.”
Putin responded, “Yes,
yes, we have it. The same.”
The two men shared a laugh
at that before sitting down for
their fi rst face-to-face discus-
sion since the Mueller report
was issued in April. The spe-
cial counsel concluded that
Moscow extensively inter-
fered in the 2016 presidential
campaign but said he could
not establish a criminal con-
spiracy between Russia and
the Trump campaign.
Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer criticized
Trump for kidding around
about election meddling. He
said the joke is on Amer-
ica and “Putin’s the only one
laughing.”
“President Trump is basi-
cally giving Putin a green
light to interfere in 2020,”
Schumer tweeted.
Former President Jimmy
Carter had even harsher
words. The Democrat said he
believed Russian interference
put Trump into the White
House, though he didn’t
elaborate.
“There is no doubt that
the Russians did interfere in
the election,” Carter said at
a human rights discussion in
Leesburg, Virginia. “I think
the interference, though not
yet quantifi ed, if fully inves-
tigated would show that
Trump didn’t actually win
the election in 2016. He lost
the election and was put into
offi ce because the Russians
interfered.”
In Japan, Trump told
reporters that “many positive
things” would come out of his
good relationship with Putin,
who invited him to visit Rus-
sia next year to mark the 75th
anniversary of the allied vic-
tory in World War II.
The friendly tone of Putin’s
exchange with Trump stood
in sharp contrast to the Rus-
sian leader’s frosty meeting
Friday with outgoing British
Prime Minister Theresa May.
May again confronted
Putin over the March 2018
nerve agent attack on double
agent Sergei Skripal and his
daughter Yulia in the Brit-
ish city of Salisbury. The two
spent weeks in critical condi-
tion but eventually recovered.
Britain has accused Russia of
poisoning them with the nerve
agent Novichok, which Mos-
cow has denied.
Before their meeting
— their fi rst since poison-
ings that also resulted in the
death of a British citizen —
May said Britain would push
for the two Russian military
intelligence offi cers accused
of involvement in the attack
to be brought to justice. She
told Putin during the meet-
ing that “there cannot be a
normalization of our bilateral
relationship until Russia stops
the irresponsible and destabi-
lizing activity,” according to
Downing Street.
Putin has insisted that Rus-
sia had nothing to do with the
poisoning and argued that
bilateral ties were far more
important than “the fuss about
spies not worth fi ve copecks.”
While Trump has long
placed a premium on estab-
lishing close personal ties
with Putin, the president
has disputes with Moscow,
too. The Trump administra-
tion has increased sanctions
and other pressures on the
Russian government.
The United States and Rus-
sia also are on opposing sides
of a crisis with Iran, which is
accused by the U.S. of shoot-
ing down an American drone.
Trump nixed a possible retal-
iatory airstrike but says the
U.S. remains fi rm that Tehran
should not have nuclear weap-
ons and must stop supporting
militant groups.
At a summit last Novem-
ber in Argentina, Trump
canceled his meeting with
Putin over Russia’s seizure
of two Ukrainian vessels
and their crews in the Sea of
Azov. Those crew members
remain detained, yet Trump
opted to forge ahead with the
Osaka meeting. He said Fri-
day alongside Putin that the
fate of the sailors had yet to be
discussed.
The leaders both have
announced their withdrawal
from a key arms control pact,
the 1987 Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty. It is to
terminate this summer, rais-
ing fears of a new arms race.
Another major nuclear agree-
ment, the New Start Treaty, is
to expire in 2021 unless Mos-
cow and Washington negoti-
ate an extension.
The White House said
after Friday’s meeting that
the leaders agreed to keep
talking about a “21st cen-
tury model of arms control,”
which Trump said needs to
include China. In addition to
Iran, the two leaders also dis-
cussed Syria, Venezuela and
Ukraine. The U.S. and Rus-
sia are on opposing sides on
those three issues, too.
BRIEFLY
Life sentence for killing
at Charlottesville protest
CHARLOTTESVILLE,
Va.
(AP) — An avowed white suprem-
acist who deliberately drove his car
into a crowd of counterprotesters,
killing a young woman and injuring
dozens, apologized to his victims Fri-
day before being sentenced to life in
prison on federal hate crime charges.
James Alex Fields Jr., of Maumee,
Ohio, had pleaded guilty in March
to 29 of 30 hate crimes in connec-
tion with the 2017 attack that killed
Heather Heyer and injured more than
two dozen others.
Prosecutors and Fields’ lawyers
agreed that federal sentencing guide-
lines called for a life sentence. But his
attorneys asked U.S. District Judge
Michael Urbanski to consider a sen-
tence of “less than life,” hoping he
would take into account Fields’ trou-
bled childhood and mental health
issues.
Just before Urbanski announced
his sentence, the 22-year-old Fields,
accompanied by one of his lawyers,
The Senate fell short on Fri-
walked to a podium in the courtroom day, in a 50-40 vote, on an amend-
ment to a sweeping Defense bill that
and apologized.
would require congressional support
before Trump acts. It didn’t reach the
Senate fails to limit
60-vote threshold needed for pas-
Trump war powers
sage. But lawmakers said the major-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Politi- ity showing sent a strong mes-
cal unease over the White House’s sage that Trump cannot continue
tough talk against Iran is reviving relying on the nearly two-decade-
questions about President Don- old war authorizations Congress
ald Trump’s ability to order mil- approved in the aftermath of the
itary strikes without approval Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The House
is expected to take up the issue
from Congress.
next month.
“A congressional vote is a pretty
good signal of what our constituents
are telling us — that another war in
the Middle East would be a disaster
right now, we don’t want the pres-
ident to just do it on a whim,” said
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a co-author
of the measure with Sen. Tom Udall,
D-N.M.
“My gut tells me that the White
House is realizing this is deeply
unpopular with the American public.”
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