Trump Feels GOP Heat on Putin, But Will It Linger?

With sharp statements that underscored a deep disconnect between the president and his party's orthodoxy in dealing with Russia, GOP lawmakers condemned Donald Trump's apparent appeasement of Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday.

After President Trump undermined U.S. intelligence and Justice Department officials by calling the Russian president "extremely strong and powerful in his denial" of interference in the 2016 presidential election, a substantial number of his fellow Republicans distanced themselves from his assessment.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said, "There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals." Sen. John McCain called the Trump-Putin press conference "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory." Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said Putin was likely celebrating with caviar. North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones said that "the ghost of Ronald Reagan must be in shock."

And even close allies of the president came to the defense of the American institutions he disparaged, reminding the public of Russian transgressions and wondering aloud why a president who eschews political politeness whiffed at the opportunity to talk tough on the world stage. Newt Gingrich, staunch defender of the president, said Trump needed to revise his statements about the intelligence community and Putin. "It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected — immediately," Gingrich tweeted. And GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis, who is running with the president's support for governor of Florida, said on Fox News that Trump could have drawn a contrast to President Obama and thus had "the opportunity to say, 'There's a new sheriff in town.'"

But inherent in many of their statements of alarm over the president's behavior in Finland was an air of inevitability, which raises questions about whether there will be any real political consequences for Trump. Few GOP critics mentioned him by name, or outlined possible legislative steps going forward. GOP Senate Whip John Cornyn told reporters the president was "conflating" Russia interference with the legitimacy of his victory in 2016. And the scene was reminiscent of past Trump controversies in which party members denounced his actions only to move along as the news cycle turns over.