President Donald Trump's decision to take the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, over the findings of a "dedicated patriot" like Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was "indefensible," Rep. Pete King said Tuesday.
The New York Republican also told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" that there is no way Trump should take Putin up on his offer to help investigate further into the charges filed against 12 Russian officials in connection with hacking into Democratic servers.
"I disagree completely," King said about Trump's comments. "First of all, to take the word of a former KGB agent and liar like Putin over Dan Coats, a dedicated patriot appointed by the president himself, and to do that on the world stage was indefensible."
During his press conference with Putin on Monday, Trump said he has "great confidence" in his intelligence people, but Putin was "extremely strong and powerful" in his denials over meddling.
Further, Trump said that Putin had made an "incredible offer" to have Russian intelligence agents work with U.S. investigators in respect to the Russians that had been indicted.
"As far as allowing or to think it's a good deal for Russian intelligence to be working with American intelligence and law enforcement, it is like bringing ISIS into a Joint Task Force meeting," said King. "We don't want Russian intelligence knowing what we're doing. These are the most untrustworthy people in the world. They're committed liars. We're not talking about dealing with the Israelis or other close allies but talking about a country that lies and carries out lies and deceit for the last 100 years."
Giving Putin any kind of status or credit, continued King, is "wrong."
"I have no problem with the president meeting with [Putin] but you have to stand up to him," said King.
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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