Top Lawmakers Pile on Putin’s Op-Ed
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress scrambled to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in The New York Times Thursday — and the reviews were less than glowing.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was the first out of the gate.
“I almost wanted to vomit,” Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on CNN Wednesday evening. “I worry when someone who came up through the KGB tells us what is in our national interests, and what is not. It really raises the question of how serious the Russian proposal is.”
Putin denied protecting the Syrian government, writing, “it is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in a tweet, called Putin’s words “an insult.”
Putin’s NYT op-ed is an insult to the intelligence of every American
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 12, 2013
Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., said in an interview with CNN Thursday that he too was not a fan of Putin’s piece: “I could hear Reagan turning over in his grave.”
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