While the avalanche of Leftist furore over the fact that President Trump did not wrestle Putin to the ground, make him admit that he is responsible for Hillary not getting elected, and that he is 'not my president' was to be expected - no matter what occurred during the meeting between the two world leaders; it is the Republicans that have come outswinging in the last 24 hours against the idea of any rapprochement - specifically discussions around a joint cyber security unit...
"Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe," he said following their talks at a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Hamburg, Germany.
And today, as Reuters reports, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, an influential South Carolina Republican who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Marco Rubio of Florida, who opposed Trump for their party's presidential nomination, blasted the idea.
Rubio, on Twitter, said:
"While reality & pragmatism requires that we engage Vladimir Putin, he will never be a trusted ally or a reliable constructive partner.
"Partnering with Putin on a 'Cyber Security Unit' is akin to partnering with (Syrian President Bashar al) Assad on a 'Chemical Weapons Unit'."
But it was Graham that really let loose on NBC News' 'Meet the Press'... (via The Hill)
“When it comes to Russia I am dumbfounded, I am disappointed, and at the end of the day he’s hurting his presidency by not embracing the fact that Putin is a bad guy,”
“He is literally the only person I know of who doesn’t believe Russia attacked our election in 2016,” Graham said of Trump, who has said that “nobody really knows” whether the Russians were behind attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election.
Graham stressed that there is no evidence the Russian meddling influenced the vote, but he said that by denying the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, Trump “throws our intelligence communities under the bus."
http://www.nbcnews.com/widget/video-embed/989021763602
But Graham was not done, he slammed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Trump for being “ready to forgive and forget” when it comes to Russian attacks on the 2016 presidential election.
“This whole idea about moving forward without punishing Russia is undermining his entire presidency,” he said. Graham is pushing for increased sanctions on Russia. The Senate passed such a bill, but it is currently delayed in the House. Reports have indicated the White House wants to soften the language.
“The more you do this, the more people are suspicious about you and Russia,” Graham warned Trump.
"I am intent on punishing the Russians for interfering in our election."
Of course, the Democrats had their jab...Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" program.
"If that’s our best election defense. We might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow," Schiff added.
What everyone seems to be missing from all this is the simple fact that there is no evidence - none, zero, zilch - that Putin, directly or indirectly, "hacked" the US election - just speculative dysphoria that has now become fact via propaganda. But saying that would likely make us just another 'puppet of Putin' - so we won't.