House Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Adam Schiff on Friday called for "healthy skepticism" on how tough President Donald Trump was with Russian Vladimir Putin on Moscow's election meddling in their meeting in Germany.
"The American people can be forgiven for a healthy skepticism about just how hard Mr. Trump could have pressed the Russian autocrat, given that the President publicly cast doubt on Russian responsibility and the probity of our intelligence agencies only the day before," the California Democrat said in a statement.
"Can we really expect the president to be more forthcoming with the Russian president if he is not willing to fully level with our own people on the same subject?"
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Trump and Putin had a "robust and lengthy" conversation about Moscow's election role after the U.S. president brought up the matter at the outset of their meeting at the G-20 summit.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov countered afterward that Trump "accepted" Putin's assurance that Moscow did not interfere last year.
In addition, Schiff ripped the possibility of the U.S. and Russia working together on cybersecurity issues.
"The establishment of a working group as reported by Foreign Minister Lavrov to study how to curb cyber interference in elections in which the Russians would play any role, would be akin to inviting the North Koreans to participate in a commission on nonproliferation," he said.
"It tacitly adopts the fiction that the Russians are a constructive partner on the subject instead of the worst actor on the world stage."
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