--- title: John McCain Slams Trump's 'Disgraceful' Remarks With Putin description: Sen. John McCain condemned President Trump's remarks following a meeting with Vladimir Putin, calling it a "disgraceful performance." canonical: https://time.com/5339932/john-mccain-statement-trump-putin-meeting/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-16T19:03:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:34:32.949Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain Slams Trump for 'Disgraceful Performance' at Putin Meeting og:description: "No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant" og:url: https://time.com/5339932/john-mccain-statement-trump-putin-meeting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4de5d217fcb7f295/69893579e76ad271b963281f/john-mccain-response-trump-putin-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Senate Armed Services Committee Holds Hearing On Situation In Afghanistan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain Slams Trump for 'Disgraceful Performance' at Putin Meeting twitter:description: "No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4de5d217fcb7f295/69893579e76ad271b963281f/john-mccain-response-trump-putin-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Calls Trump's Press Conference With Putin 'One of the Most Disgraceful Performances by an American President' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2e189439-82b0-4b89-85db-35191c1fee69&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said [Watch (HLS stream): Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWwhbNrF.m3u8) (2:38)  _Published 2018-07-16. Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 16, 2018 7:03 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 16, 2018 7:03 PM UTC Arizona Sen. John McCain condemned President Donald Trump’s remarks at a [joint press conference](http://time.com/5339830/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-helsinki-meddling/) with [Russian President Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/5333104/putin-trump-summit-helsinki-winner/) in Helsinki on Monday, calling it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake,” McCain said in a statement. “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.” On Friday, McCain [called for Trump to cancel the summit](http://time.com/5338688/john-mccain-trump-putin-meeting/) if he was “not prepared to hold Putin accountable” after the Justice Department charged 12 Russian intelligence officials with hacking the Democratic National Committee’s emails, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and state election systems. On Monday, Trump met with Putin for two hours and then, during a 46-minute joint press conference, slammed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and [declined to criticize Putin for election interference](http://time.com/5339830/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-helsinki-meddling/). “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said during Monday’s press conference, when asked whether he believed U.S. intelligence officials over Putin, who denied any election meddling. > [](https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/1018919182904299520) McCain joined [other congressional Republicans](http://time.com/5339995/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-congress-reaction/) on Monday in contradicting Trump and acknowledging Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,” McCain said in his statement. “Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad.” Read McCain’s full statement here: --- > “” --- ## Transcript Once again president Trump mentioned the issue of the so called interference of Russia when the American elections. And I had to literate things I said several times including during out personal context that the Russian state has never interfered and it's not going to interfere Into internal American affairs, including election process. During today's meeting, I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person, spent a great deal of time talking about it. And President Putin may very well want to address it and very strongly. Because he feels very strongly about it and he has an interesting idea. To say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn't even know the President. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign and every time you hear these you know all of these twelve and fourteen and frankly they admit these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader maybe it does. It doesn't. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it's kept us apart. It's kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the floor. So far, that I know, virtually none of it related to the campaign. And they're gonna have to try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the campaign. It was a clean campaign. Zero collusion. And it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 % of nuclear power between the two countries. 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