{"id":80001,"date":"2017-07-06T20:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/message-to-moscow-trump-raps-russia-ahead-of-putin-meeting-but-not-enough-for-dems.html"},"modified":"2017-07-06T20:00:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T20:00:12","slug":"message-to-moscow-trump-raps-russia-ahead-of-putin-meeting-but-not-enough-for-dems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/breaking-news\/message-to-moscow-trump-raps-russia-ahead-of-putin-meeting-but-not-enough-for-dems.html","title":{"rendered":"MESSAGE TO MOSCOW Trump raps Russia ahead of Putin meeting – but not enough for Dems"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump called for Moscow to stop fueling global unrest on the eve of his highly anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin, indicating his first sit-down with his Russian counterpart won’t be all smiles and handshakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. president, though, also faced tough Democratic criticism Thursday for “casting doubt” during a press conference on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel stands behind European flag as she waits for Chinese President Xi Jinping in Germany on July 5, 2017. <\/p>\n

\u00a0(AP)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

The reaction reflects the tricky balancing act ahead as Trump prepares for the Putin meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Germany. Trump arrived in the country on Thursday, meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hamburg, ahead of Friday’s planned meeting with Putin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump frequently has said he wants the U.S. to get along with Russia and has rejected allegations of ‘collusion’ between his associates and Russia last year. At the same time, Trump has an interest in reining in Russia’s destabilizing activities around the world — and confronting Putin about them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump took an initial step toward that goal during his rousing speech in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday morning, openly criticizing Russia’s policies on the global stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge Russia to cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere, and its support for hostile regimes including Syria and Iran, and to join the community of responsible nations in our fight against common enemies and in defense of civilization itself,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

TRUMP, IN POLAND, VOWS THE ‘WEST WILL NEVER, EVER BE BROKEN’<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

However, during a joint press conference hours earlier with Poland’s president, Trump was not so critical on the question of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Russian President Vladamir Putin speaks at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia on June 2, 2017. <\/p>\n

\u00a0(AP)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\u201cI think it was Russia, and I think it could have been other people in other countries\u2014I don\u2019t want to be specific,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cI think Russia probably, and other people and other countries, nobody really knows, nobody really knows for sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump added: \u201cRemember Iraq weapons of mass destruction?\u00a0 Everyone was 100 percent sure Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, guess what\u2014they were wrong and it led to a mess\u2014it was Russia, but others also.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee which is investigating Russia election meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates, slammed the president for his response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Schiff took to Twitter saying: \u201cAmerica last. @POTUS already capitulates to Putin.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a written statement, Schiff hit Trump for \u201ccasting doubt\u201d on whether Russia was behind election meddling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Ranking Member of House Select Committee on Intelligence Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 21, 2017<\/p>\n

\u00a0(AP)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\u201cThis is not putting America first, but continuing to propagate his own personal fiction at the country\u2019s expense,\u201d Schiff said, urging Trump to \u201chave the courage\u201d to raise the issue of Russian interference in the election with Putin. \u201cOtherwise the Kremlin will conclude he is too weak to stand up to them. That would be a historic mistake, with damaging implications for our foreign policy for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that same press conference, Trump took a shot at former President Barack Obama for apparently being notified of Russian meddling in August and allegedly \u201cdoing nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election and let\u2019s not do anything about it,\u201d Trump said of Obama. \u201cHe was told by the CIA that Russia was trying to get involved. He did nothing about it. People said he choked\u2014I don\u2019t think he choked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox News’ Jason Donner contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

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Brooke Singman is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump called for Moscow to stop fueling global unrest on the eve of his highly anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin, indicating his first sit-down with his Russian counterpart won’t be all smiles and handshakes.\u00a0 The U.S. president, though, also faced tough Democratic criticism Thursday for “casting doubt” during a press conference on whether Russia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-80001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}