Donald Trump once said “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Perhaps so. Perhaps there is no red line for some Trump supporters. But for the rest of the world Trump crossed the red line yesterday (or maybe way before). As the New York Daily News cover shows, this wasn’t up for debate or something that happened behind closed doors. The shot has been fired and the world was a witness.
.@realdonaldtrump derides reports with which he disagrees as “fake news,” then buys the Russian narrative hook, line, sinker, pole and boat. https://t.co/TGHurpVDKy
An early look at Tuesday's front… pic.twitter.com/BXsoZsIT4B
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) July 16, 2018
With the World Cup just wrapping up a Finnish newspaper put it this way.
This morning’s paper here in Finland pic.twitter.com/Xg0wPJZsKR
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2018
No matter how Trump spins it, what he said during his media event with Vladimir Putin was a loss for not just the President, but for all of us.
As for the reaction on TV, many echo the newspaper headlines. It’s been 24 hours of shock and disgust. Even several Fox News hosts and guests highly criticized Trump.
Fox News harshly criticized President Trump after his meeting with Russian President Putin. https://t.co/jNv8mKvgrZ pic.twitter.com/qIsHPIYcmr
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 17, 2018
"That was the most stunning performance by an American president on the world stage I think we've seen in modern times."@GStephanopoulos weighs in on the fallout following President Trump's one-on-one with Putin in Helsinki. pic.twitter.com/LtuXCAZhBL
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 17, 2018
Rachel Maddow has been laying out the case that Trump is unfit for office for more than a year, but last night even she admitted Trump’s behavior in Finland took things to another level:
“For everything we have have been through as a country … we haven’t ever had to reckon with the possibility that somebody has ascended to the presidency of the United States to serve the interest of another country rather than our own.”
Here's the first five minutes of Rachel Maddow tonight on Americans coming to grips with a worst case scenario that the U.S. president is compromised by a hostile foreign power.
(full video: https://t.co/DCBavBRHtY) pic.twitter.com/2gfqi5Lh5s— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) July 17, 2018
The idea that the Russia government has compromised Trump was echoed on MSNBC.
"I do think the Russians have information that they might think would be embarrassing (to President Trump)." – Retired Gen. Michael Hayden on the Trump-Putin summit https://t.co/A4wjBR6Kc2 https://t.co/nf4n7b8Hjh
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) July 17, 2018