The hosts of Fox News' "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning addressed some rare criticism of President Donald Trump following his performance at Monday's press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with one of the anchors, Brian Kilmeade, urging Trump directly to "pay attention" to the Republicans speaking out against him.
"When Newt Gingrich, when Gen. Jack Keane, when Matt Schlapp say the president fell short and made our intelligence apparatus look bad, I think it's time to pay attention and it's easily correctable from the president's perspective," Kilmeade said.
"Nobody's perfect, especially [after] 10 intensive days of summits, private meetings, and everything on his plate. But that moment is the one that's going to stand out unless he comes out and corrects it."
Kilmeade denied that Trump won his election in 2016 because of Russia's interference, but added that Russia's goal was to "upend the process" because "they hate democracy."
During his joint press conference alongside Putin on Monday, Trump said Putin had been "extremely strong and powerful" in his denials during their private conversation earlier in the day in Helsinki, Finland.
He also called special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's meddling a "disaster" and told the international media that "President Putin says it's not Russia; I don't see any reason why it would be," when asked whether he believed his own intelligence agencies over the Russian president.
"Fox & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy on Tuesday also criticized Trump, as did Abby Huntsman, who was standing in for show regular co-host Ainsley Earhardt, who was in Helsinki to cover the president's meeting with Putin.
"I'm not saying the president is confused," said Doocy. "A lot of people are confused about the Russia collusion thing, but pretty much everyone and their brother, except Vladimir Putin, knows that there was meddling.
"Where it drives the president crazy, apparently, is when it is suggested that he did not win the presidency on his own, that there was some meddling that helped him. Keep in mind, all the authorities have said that there was meddling, but not a single vote was changed."
Huntsman, whose father, Jon Huntsman, is the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, also addressed Trump directly, commenting that "you had that one moment" to stand up for the United States.
"You are standing next to Vladimir Putin, whose ultimate goal in life is to undermine our democracy," Huntsman said. "It was that one moment that had you to stand up for your own country, to stand up for your intelligence community."
However, she said, "He did not do that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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