2016 ELECTION/DEMS/GOP/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Republicans across the ideological spectrum delivered pointed rebukes to President Trump after Monday’s [7-16-18] extraordinary news conference with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, with Speaker Paul D. Ryan admonishing Mr. Trump and declaring, ‘There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia.’ Mr. Ryan was joined by other Republicans whose reactions ranged from silence to disappointment to shock at the way Mr. Trump publicly dismissed the conclusions of his own national intelligence director that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, blamed both the United States and Russia for poor relations between the two countries, and seemingly invited Russia to cooperate with the investigation being led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, released a statement calling Mr. Trump’s appearance ‘one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory…’ Still, even for Republicans used to dodging comment on the president’s outbursts, Mr. Trump’s performance in Helsinki was difficult to ignore. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the retiring chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he ‘did not think this was a good moment for our country.’ It was, he added, a very good moment for Mr. Putin.”
–Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos, “Some Republicans Rebuke Trump for Siding With Putin, but Others Remain Silent,” The New York Times online, July 16, 2018