Friday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he was “concerned” about how easily Russian President Vladimir Putin could manipulate President Donald Trump during their Anchorage, Alaska summit.
Schiff said, “I’m really deeply concerned about what comes out of this. We saw in Trump one, that disastrous summit in Helsinki, where the president took the Russian dictator’s side over our own intelligence agencies. I would hate to see a repeat of that. On the way to the summit, he’s saying that he’s not there to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine. He’s praising the Belarusian dictator, and I’m concerned about how easily he could be manipulated by Putin. If Putin praises him, if Putin offers some kind of a joint oil or mineral exploration in the Arctic, and Trump thinks that, hey, this is his ticket to some kind of a deal and some kind of a peace prize. He never really has seemed to have support for Ukraine in his bones it has to be forced on him.”
He added, “So I’m deeply worried about what could come out of this. And, you know, ideally, it would be a ceasefire. But I suspect that whatever Putin suggests, you really can’t count on, the proof will be whether it really manifests after they leave Alaska.”
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