Sen. John Cornyn Warns Trump Must be ‘Clear-Eyed’ with Putin

Everybody’s getting pumped over Donald Trump’s Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday to lay out what The Donald should be doing. In the mind of the Senate’s #2 Republican, the President had better keep a “clear-eyed” approach.

As a side note, he was particularly well-spoken; I’m impressed.

Cornyn noted the virtue of sitting down with Putin:

“I think it’s always helpful when leaders of nations talk to one another. To me, it would be counter-productive just to ignore that or avoid that possibility.”

Yet, he asserted the leader of Russia is a bit of a bad boy. And not in the David Hasselhoff kind of way:

“On the other hand, I think the President should be clear-eyed about who he’s dealing with. Putin is an autocrat, he’s a thug, he doesn’t respect the rule of law. Obviously, he doesn’t respect our democracy and wants to undermine it every chance he gets.”

Strong words. Cornyn also warned against slacking in our commitment to protect against future electoral intrusion:

“Russia’s long been engaged in trying to undermine confidence in our democracy. It’s just that their game has now risen to the point where they actually had an impact. … And so, we’d better wake up, because this is a warning shot for our next elections, and we’d better be ready.”

In Cornyn’s view, perhaps, Trump is a bit hesitant to face the reality of Russian meddling, for personal reasons:

“…I agree that Russians did meddle in our elections, and we’d better be prepared for the next time. But again, there’s no indication that it…changed the outcome of the election. … I think the President is…conflating the meddling investigation with the investigation into potential collusion, for which there’s been no evidence revealed so far. And I think it’s personal to him because he feels like he’s under attack, and of course, he is. … But I think he’s conflating those two…”

Interesting idea.

And even more interesting, presumably, will be the events of tomorrow, when President Trump faces the man whose name has been an unrelenting presence in his Washington experience thus far. The press won’t give up on collusion, and neither will the Democrats. In fact, according to memes, social media, and ignorant Democratic voters everywhere, collusion has already been well-established as fact — it’s just a matter of time before Trump is placed behind bars, or worse.

But in the real world, tomorrow will be a meeting of two minds, of two major world leaders. And hopefully, the assembly will be a profitable one. For the good ol’ USA.

For more on what they will be discussing, please see my articles here and here. For my coverage of Trump’s European presence leading up to tomorrow, please go here, here, here, here, and here.

What do you think of Warner’s assessment? And what do you expect to happen tomorrow? Something substantial, or just a for-appearances meet-and-greet? Please let us all know in the Comments section below.

For something completely different, check out my Trump vs. Elizabeth Warren article, my piece on Episcopalians giving God a sex change, and Kamala Harris’s fake news.