Republican senators criticise Trump for congratulating Putin on election win

Some Republican lawmakers are criticising President Donald Trump for calling Russian President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his re-election.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona said, “An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.” McCain’s Arizona colleague, Sen. Jeff Flake, labelled Trump’s congratulatory call “odd” while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said calling Putin “wouldn’t have been high on my list.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted that President Barack Obama made a similar call at the time of Putin’s last electoral victory. Huckabee said, “We don’t get to dictate how other countries operate.”

In the call Trump didn’t raise Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections or its suspected involvement in the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.