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"All we've come to expect is a saber-rattling president who embraces and provides legitimacy to some of the world's most notorious bad actors and who denigrates our closest allies," declared ranking member Senator Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey). "We've seen our president look weak as he stands beside our adversaries."Menendez also described Putin as a "thug" and insisted Russia was continuing to actively undermine US elections.
"We're ready to invite Trump to Moscow. By the way, he has such an invitation. I told him about that," the Russian leader said during a press conference at the sidelines of the BRICS summit. "I'm also ready to come to Washington if proper working conditions are created."The Russian and US leaders held a much-anticipated summit in Helsinki, Finland earlier this month, with Putin saying that both he and Trump were interested in more high-level contacts.
President Trump is "open" to the idea of visiting Moscow, but only if he receives a formal invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House has said.
"He is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Friday, adding that the President also looks forward to hosting Putin in the US next year.
Earlier this week, Trump postponed a Washington meeting between the two leaders until next year, citing political fallout over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing and still fruitless 'Russiagate' investigation.
The Kremlin had not formally agreed to a meeting, which had been slated to take place this fall. Aide Yuri Ushakov said that while a meeting should take place, "it would be wise to let the dust settle" first.
Trump was heavily criticized by Democrats, Republicans, and the US media for meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this month. They argued that Trump should have pressed his Russian counterpart harder on allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and should have warned Putin against interfering with the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
While Trump was eviscerated in the media for his handling of the Helsinki summit, a recent poll conducted by The Hill found that 54 percent of Americans support a second summit between the two leaders in Washington, and 61 percent say that better relations with Russia are in the best interests of the United States.
Comment: It's hard to argue that the office of the POTUS holds any dignity at all these days - that's a big reason Trump got elected. As for his bombastic tweets, it's clear by now that he uses his 'art of the deal' to get things moving. In fact, he recently announced that the US is now ready to work on a new Iranian nuclear deal: As for Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of Washington, hopefully they won't get the chaos and destruction that they're praying so fervently for.