Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Tuesday President Donald Trump's summit with his Russian counterpart was "shameful," adding it was a "big mistake" for him to hold a one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Trump and Putin met Monday in Helsinki and later held a press conference, during which Trump seemed to praise Putin and did not stand up to him over allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
Flake joined a chorus of other critics on both sides of the aisle in denouncing Trump's meeting.
"If that is what victory looks like, as the White House said, I think we'd all like to know what failure looks like in a summit. That was just a shameful performance. It really was," Flake said on "Good Morning America."
"That was a big mistake to meet alone. If the president is as confused as he seems to be in terms of our relationship [with the Russians] and in terms with what the Russians are capable of, to meet privately with Vladimir Putin is just wrong. So, I'm very concerned. I think that our allies are most concerned, particularly those that border right on Russia."
Flake then conveyed his concern that NATO countries, particularly those close to Russia, are growing worried that the U.S. under Trump's leadership may not have their back.
"I was with a congressional delegation in Latvia just two weeks ago, and what was unnerving is to hear them talk about the propaganda coming from Moscow that plays to about 40 percent of their population, which is Russian-speaking, about NATO being weak and the U.S. being a non-dependable ally for NATO," Flake said. "And then to have this kind of rhetoric from the president just play so well into that has got to be unnerving to them."
Flake proposed that sanctions be placed on Russian individuals who have been indicted for election meddling and also asked for congressional action that includes meeting with White House national security officials and passing a resolution that supports the intelligence community's finding of Russian election interference.
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