President Donald Trump showed his "real self" in Helsinki earlier this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the translator from their private meeting should be called before Congress to testify about what was said, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said Thursday.
"We would understand what the president has not shared with us publicly," Swalwell told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"He has priors. I was a prosecutor. He has had Russians in the Oval Office before and divulged national security secrets . . . What we saw on stage on Monday, that is the real Donald Trump. Somebody who will side and align with Vladimir Putin before he would side and align with our own intelligence community."
Meanwhile, Swalwell said he had always had concerns about the adequacy of the government's response to information that Russians had meddled in the 2016 election, and pointed out, just after the November election, he had asked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for an independent commission to investigate the matter.
"I said this was too politically charged and wrote legislation to take it outside the capitol to look at the issues and just as we did after Sept. 11," Swalwell said.
Show host Bill Hemmer noted Nunes had said Russian meddling occurred in 2008 and 2014, and he had issued warnings in 2014 and 2016, but Swalwell noted it is also happening now, and he wants Trump to take action so interference does not happen again.
Trump has been tough on Putin, Hemmer said, including enforcing sanctions and arming Ukraine, but Swalwell retorted that the only reason those actions happened was because Americans pushed congressional leaders into taking actions and Trump "reluctantly signed them."
Swalwell also said he was not on the program to defend what former President Barack Obama did about Ukraine, but agreed he would have pushed for tougher action on Russia than Obama had.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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