Sen. Chris Murphy said Sunday that President Trump got rolled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in their Alaska summit.
Mr. Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Mr. Putin entered the meeting facing threats of new sanctions, and left it “with his photo op with zero commitments made and zero consequences.”
“That meeting was a disaster,” Mr. Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It was an embarrassment for the United States. It was a failure.”
“Putin got everything he wanted,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Putin in Anchorage ended without a deal, and the two leaders exchanged pleasantries on the world stage.
Mr. Trump said it was a “productive meeting.”
“Many points were agreed to,” he said. “There are just a very few that are left.”
Mr. Trump also backed off his threat that there would be “severe consequences” for Russia if it did not agree to a cease-fire, saying he was more interested in a broader peace deal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Mr. Trump switched gears because new sanctions on Russia would likely blow up the peace negotiations and extend the war for months if not years.
Mr. Rubio also said that any peace deal will have to involve Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders are scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump at the White House on Monday.
Mr. Murphy said Mr. Putin got the photo op with Mr. Trump that he wanted.
“He wanted to be absolved of his war crimes in front of the world,” he said. “War criminals are not normally invited to the United States of America.”
“He is intentionally murdering civilians, he’s kidnapping children, and now he got to stand next to the President of the United States, legitimized in the view of the world,” Mr. Murphy said.