Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said President Donald Trump’s comments slamming NATO allies are beneficial to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin’s dream has been a weakening, undermining European unity and the western alliance. That’s what he’s trying to do. And he can smell weakness. And if he sees the weakness, the disunity between the U.S. and Europe… you can go back and read Putin’s speeches. He views the western alliance as a threat and he wants to see it undermined. That’s their strategy,” King said Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day.”
“I’m afraid that we’re playing into Putin’s hands,” King added.
At the start of the NATO summit in Brussels Wednesday, Trump said that a pipeline project had made Germany “captive to Russia,” and he slammed NATO allies’ defense spending.
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