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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Saturday, June 29, 2019 3A
Trump, Putin make light of meddling
President dismissed Russian interference in U.S. elections, shared contempt for world media
SUSAN WALSH I Associated Press
President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian President
Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20
summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday, June 28.
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
AND ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
OSAKA, Japan — Smiling
together on a global stage, Donald
Trump and Vladimir Putin cheer
fully dismissed Russian interfer
ence in U.S. elections, shared their
contempt for the world’s news
media and generally flaunted their
personal bond on Friday.
That was one day after the Rus
sian leader praised the president
of the United States for his nation
alist world views and vigorously
declared the days of the West’s lib
erals are dying if not already dead.
For some time, Trump has
defied the once-entrenched Repub
lican distrust if not outright hatred
of the powerful nation at the heart
of the former Soviet Union. But Fri
day’s joint appearance seemed to
go even further.
As the two leaders sat down for
their first meeting in nearly a year,
a reporter asked Trump if he would
warn Putin not to meddle in Ameri
ca’s upcoming 2020 election.
“Of course,” the president
replied. Then he turned to Putin
and facetiously said, “Don’t med
dle in the election.” He playfully
repeated the request while pointing
at Putin, who laughed.
The exchange at the Group of 20
summit in Osaka echoed one of the
defining moments of Trump’s pres
idency from a year ago in Helsinki,
Finland. There, Trump pointedly
did not admonish Putin about elec
tion interference and did not side
with U.S. intelligence agencies over
his Russian counterpart.
Putin disputes special counsel
Robert Mueller’s conclusion that
Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S.
election to help Trump win. Putin
told the Financial Times this week
that it was “mythical interference.”
“What happened in reality? Mr.
Trump looked into his opponents’
attitude to him and saw changes
in American society and he took
advantage of this,” Putin told the
newspaper.
Putin, who has highlighted pop
ulist movements in Europe and
America, praised Trump for trying
to stem the flow of migrants and
drugs from Mexico and expressed
a view that liberalism — the main
political ideology in the West since
the end of World War II — has out
lived its days.
“This liberal idea presupposes
that nothing needs to be done —
that migrants can kill, plunder and
rape with impunity because their
rights as migrants have to be pro
tected,” Putin said, playing into
issues Trump is emphasizing in his
re-election campaign.
“The liberal idea has become
obsolete,” he said in the interview.
The two leaders also bonded Fri
day over their mutual disdain for
“fake news.”
Trump eyed the reporters at a
photo opportunity with the Rus
sian leader and told him, “Get rid
of them, fake news. You don’t have
the problem in Russia. We have it;
you don’t have it.”
Putin responded, “Yes, yes, we
have it. The same.”
The two men shared a laugh at
that before sitting down for their
first face-to-face discussion since
the Mueller report was issued in
April. The special counsel con
cluded that Moscow extensively
interfered in the 2016 presidential
campaign but said he could not
establish a criminal conspiracy
between Russia and the Trump
campaign.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer criticized Trump for
kidding around about election
meddling. He said the joke is on
America and “Putin’s the only one
laughing.”
“President Trump is basically
giving Putin a green light to inter
fere in 2020,” Schumer tweeted.
Former President Jimmy Carter
had even harsher words. The
Democrat said he believed Rus
sian interference put Trump into
the White House, though he didn’t
elaborate.
“There is no doubt that the Rus
sians did interfere in the election,”
Carter said at a human rights dis
cussion in Leesburg, Virginia. “I
think the interference, though not
yet quantified, if fully investigated
would show that Trump didn’t actu
ally win the election in 2016. He lost
the election and was put into office
because the Russians interfered.”
In Japan, Trump told reporters
that “many positive things” would
come out of his good relationship
with Putin, who invited him to visit
Russia next year to mark the 75th
anniversary of the allied victory in
World War II.
The friendly tone of Putin’s
exchange with Trump stood in
sharp contrast to the Russian lead
er’s frosty meeting Friday with
outgoing British Prime Minister
Theresa May.
May again confronted Putin over
the March 2018 nerve agent attack
on double agent Sergei Skripal and
his daughter Yulia in the British
city of Salisbury.
The two spent weeks in critical
condition but eventually recov
ered. Britain has accused Russia
of poisoning them with the nerve
agent Novichok, which Moscow
has denied.
Before their meeting — their
first since poisonings that also
resulted in the death of a British
citizen — May said Britain would
push for the two Russian military
intelligence officers accused of
involvement in the attack to be
brought to justice.
She told Putin during the meet
ing that “there cannot be a normal
ization of our bilateral relationship
until Russia stops the irresponsible
and destabilizing activity,” accord
ing to Downing Street.
Putin has insisted that Russia
had nothing to do with the poison
ing and argued that bilateral ties
were far more important than
“the fuss about spies not worth five
copecks.”
Tix from
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Supreme Court to rule on Trump
bid to end ‘dreamers’ program
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Trump sees his hardline
immigration policies as a
winning campaign issue that
can energize his supporters.
“We are pleased the
Supreme Court agreed
that this issue needs reso
lution. We look forward to
presenting our case before
the court,” Justice Depart
ment spokesman Alexei
Woltornist said.
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BY MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Add
ing a high-stakes immigra
tion case to its election-year
agenda, the Supreme Court
said Friday it will decide
whether President Donald
Trump can terminate an
Obama-era program shield
ing young migrants from
deportation.
The justices’ order sets
up legal arguments for late
fall or early winter, with
a decision likely by June
2020 as Trump campaigns
for re-election. The presi
dent ordered an end to the
program known as DACA in
2017, sparking protests and
a congressional effort to sal
vage it.
That effort failed, but
federal courts in Califor
nia, New York, Virginia
and Washington, D.C., have
blocked him from ending
it immediately. A federal
judge in Texas has declared
the program is illegal, but
refused to order it halted.
The program — Deferred
Action for Childhood Arriv
als — protects about 700,000
people, known as dreamers,
who were brought to the
U.S. illegally as children
or came with families that
overstayed visas.
The DACA protections
seem certain to remain in
effect at least until the high
court issues its decision.
The administration had
asked the court to take up
and decide the appeals by
the end of this month. The
justices declined to do so
and held on to the appeals
for nearly five months with
no action and no explana
tion. The court did noth
ing Friday to clear up the
reasons for the long delay,
although immigration
experts have speculated
that the court could have
been waiting for other
appellate rulings, legislation
in Congress that would have
put the program on a surer
footing or additional admin
istration action.
Since entering the White
House, Trump has intermit
tently expressed a willing
ness to create a pathway to
citizenship for the hundreds
of thousands of immigrants
who’ve been protected by
DACA. But he’s coupled it
with demands to tighten
legal immigration and to
build his long wall along the
Mexican border — condi
tions that Democrats have
largely rejected.
With the 2020 presidential
and congressional election
seasons underway or rap
idly approaching, it seems
unlikely that either party
would be willing to com
promise on immigration, a
touchstone for both parties’
base voters. Three decades
of Washington gridlock over
the issue underscore how
fraught it has been for law
makers, and there’s little
reason to think a deal is at
hand.
On the campaign trail,
nearly all of the two dozen
Democratic presidential
candidates have pledged to
work with Congress to pro
vide a pathway to citizen
ship for millions of people
in the country illegally —
beginning with the dream
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