Following President Donald Trump’s summit Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Rep. Bill Keating says he fears the president may be “compromised.”
“This raises very serious questions ... that our president could be compromised,” Keating said in an interview with Boston Public Radio Tuesday. “That issue is an open issue, but it’s one, given the actions of the president, that can’t be dismissed.”
During a press conference with Putin, Trump sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
“This is not something that we didn’t see coming, but to see it play out on a world stage, to see the extreme that it was taken to — it’s something that has enormous impact this time,” Keating said. “This isn’t just a tweet, this isn’t just a campaign rally statement, this is where the U.S. is by its commander in chief.”
Keating is a senior member on the Homeland Security Committee and a ranking member on the Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He says he’s urging his colleagues to publicly distance themselves from the president’s message of placing his trust in Putin.
“What I can do, for my part, what we can all do as members of Congress is to reach out to our counterparts, foreign ministers, ambassadors, colleagues and their respective legislative branches, and reassure them that this is not the sentiment of the United States. ... this is not the sentiment of Congress,” Keating said. “I never thought I’d be saying this, but our president sold our country out on a world stage yesterday, and there’s no getting around that.”
To hear Rep. Keating’s full interview with Boston Public Radio, click on the audio player above.
