Russian President Vladimir Putin will not receive an invitation to address lawmakers on Capitol Hill if he visits Washington, D.C., the Republican leaders of the House and Senate said Tuesday.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, made the remarks in the wake of President Trump inviting Mr. Putin to Washington following their bilateral summit last week in Helsinki, Finland, notwithstanding lingering concerns raised by alleged Russian election meddling.
Congress “will certainly not be giving him an invitation to do a joint session,” said Mr. Ryan. “That is something we reserve for allies.”
“I can only speak for the Congress,” Mr. McConnell told reporters later Tuesday. “The speaker and I have made it clear that Putin will not be welcome up here, at the Capitol.”
The White House invited Mr. Putin to Washington following last week’s summit, albeit days after the Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges against a dozen Russian military officials accused of hacking U.S. computer systems as part of an alleged state-sponsored attack targeting the 2016 election and particularly Mr. Trump’s opponent, former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Putin denied the allegations of election meddling during a press conference held during the Helsinki summit, and Mr. Trump subsequently came under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike for seemingly siding with the Russian leader over the U.S. intelligence community.
“I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Mr. Trump said at the press conference last Monday. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia.
Mr. Trump later said that he misspoke and had meant to say, “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.”
A Kremlin aide, meanwhile, told reporters Tuesday that the next meeting between Mr. Trump and his Russian counterpart may not occur in Washington after all.
“There are other options [to meet] which our leaders can look at,” said Yuri Ushakov, Reuters reported. “Maybe there will be other international events which Trump and Putin will take part in.”
“Now we need to wait for the dust to settle, but later it may be possible to discuss these issues in a businesslike manner, but not now,” Mr. Ushakov added.
Russian hackers attacked members of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and other Democratic targets as part of a government operation personally authorized by Mr. Putin, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Moscow’s involvement on behalf of the Justice Department, has filed charges against 32 people, including the 12 alleged state-sponsored hackers and more than a dozen other Russian nationals.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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