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Too many members of the media have referred to the scheduled Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska as a summit, but that is White House spin that scared corporate lap dogs in the press are regurgitating for their audience.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) had a much more fitting description on CBS’s Face The Nation.
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Kelly was asked if he had any appetite for the lifting of US sanctions against Russia, and he said:
I don’t have an appetite to lift them.
Putin continues to execute an illegal war, where he is intentionally killing women, children, old people. I visited Ukraine several months ago, went to a veterans hospital, where nurses there just witnessed horrible atrocities.
So, I think, if anything, Margaret, we need to continue to put the pressure on Putin, on Russia, make them pay for this illegal war, attacking our NATO ally.
And I have got to say, I know you talked to Mark Rutte earlier and the ambassador about the visit on Friday in Alaska. And, Margaret, I hope we got something out of this. Putin is a war criminal. This is not a show of strength to allow him to fly into the United States, to land here to negotiate with our president.
I don’t know for certain. I don’t know what was the ground rules that were set for this negotiation.
But I would expect that this administration should have extracted something for this visit.
No one should buy the spin that this is some great international moment for the United States.
Allowing a war criminal, who launched an illegal war that is murdering innocent Ukrainians, to come to the United States and be treated like a VIP is a slap in the face to democracy.
Given Trump’s previous behavior when meeting with dictators around the world, he got no assurances or concessions from Putin in exchange for giving the Russian war criminal a global platform in the United States.
Putin should not be welcomed in the United States. Those who kill innocent civilians, like Putin and Netanyahu, should be arrested for war crimes.
The mainstream media should refuse to use the White House’s preferred terminology.
It’s the President Of The United States welcoming a war criminal on American soil.
What do you think about Sen. Kelly’s description of the Putin/Trump meeting? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
