5th District Candidates Comment On Trump-Putin Meeting

Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon and Republican Pearl Kim, who are running against one another for Pat Meehan's vacant 5th Congressional District seat, both weighed in on the meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Trump appeared to excuse Russia and Putin of any wrongdoing in connection with the 2016 election.

Scanlon, who emerged the victor in the May Democratic primary, said Trump "acted directly counter to America’s interests."

"All Americans, regardless of party, should condemn this choice of a Russian tyrant over American interests. Trump’s Helsinki press conference and subsequent statements are fresh evidence of his administration's failure to investigate or acknowledge Russian attacks on our elections, which are the bedrock of our democracy," Scanlon said in a statment. "Russia is not an ally, especially when it comes to safeguarding democratic institutions such as free and fair elections."

She also called for the investigation into Russia's election meddling be be free of any interference from Trump.

Kim said on Facebook that the Russian meddling was a "direct attack on our democracy" and that she trusts the nation's intelligence agencies and their findings.

"Director of Intelligence, Dan Coats has reaffirmed and made clear that Russia meddled in our 2016 elections," Kim said. "I believe we must take immediate steps to protect our system of voting from foreign interference. That includes providing the funding necessary to ensure that all methods of voting have, at a minimum, paper back-ups. This will allow election officials to manually confirm any election results if electronic tampering or hacking is suspected."

During the press conference, reporters asked Trump about American intelligence which indicated that Russia was responsible for hacking and meddling in the 2016 election. Trump seemed to dismiss the question and did not condemn Putin, and instead questioned the intelligence. He later elaborated on Twitter.

"As I said today and many times before, "I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people." However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world's two largest nuclear powers, we must get along!"

Trump's comments on the election meddling and his willingness to publicly excuse Putin on a national stage drew widespread outrage, including from lawmakers in the Republican party.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona — a longtime Trump critic — responded to the president's comments by calling them disgraceful.

"Today's press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory," McCain said Monday. "The damage inflicted by President Trump's naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake."

Intelligence director Dan Coats, who issued a strongly worded statement that Russia did interfere in the election, reaffirmed his commitment to "provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security."

"The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers. We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security," Coats said in the statement.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Pearl Kim

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images