Senator Sasse made his position clear – Putin is an enemy of America.
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) took to Twitter to lay out the things he believes every American should know about Vladimir Putin, and U.S. relations with Russia.
Things Every American Should Know Before the Trump-Putin Helsinki meeting:
1. Exactly who is Vladmir Putin, the Russian leader our president is about to meet with in Helsinki? And what does he want?
It’s a complicated question. But here’s what we do know…
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
2. Putin is a murderer. He has ordered the assassinations of political adversaries and used outlawed chemical weapons to do it. He oversees Russian military units that shot down Malaysian flight 17 and murdered almost 300 civilians.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
3. Putin is a crook and a liar. He has broken almost every agreement he has signed with the United States, including on Syria and Ukraine. He has become one of the world’s richest men through embezzlement and stealing from his own people.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
4. Putin is an enemy of America. He sees us as his main enemy and is engaged in ongoing attacks on our nation through information warfare and hacking our infrastructure. It’s not just that he messed with our election in 2016; he attacks us regularly, and will again in 2018.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
5. Remember, Putin ordered the influence operations that have been exposed in the most recent indictments, did not hesitate to invade Ukraine and Georgia, organized a coup in Montenegro, funded xenophobic political parties across Europe, and crippled Estonia with cyberattacks.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
6. No matter how much Putin flatters the President, he is a KGB thug who jails political opponents, encourages/orders the murder of Russian dissidents and defectors at home and abroad, and who directs a military that bombs women, children, and the injured in hospitals in Syria.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
7. I don’t think President Trump should be dignifying Putin with this meeting. When Reagan met with Gorbachev, he did so from a position of strength & moral clarity about the evil empire that the Soviet Union was, and w/ a clear purpose to end the Soviet Union’s threat to the US.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
8 (of 8).
President Trump should have only one message for Putin tomorrow: Quit messing with America.— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
Shortly after Sasse posted his series of tweets, President Trump had some thoughts of his own to share before his meeting with Putin.
Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
Senator Sasse then responded to the President’s tweet, highlighting differing views of how U.S. relations with Putin’s Russia should be viewed by Americans concerned with national security.
A better thing, Mr. President, would be to declare: “Russia is the enemy of America and our allies, and we will expose and respond to their continued cyber-attacks against our nation.” https://t.co/qNvgGRA58T
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) July 16, 2018
You can view Senator Sasse’s Twitter feed here.