Susan Rice Rips Trump for Jab at Obama on Russia, Crimea — ‘Disgraceful,’ ‘Outrageous’

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice criticized President Donald Trump for his remarks at the G7 summit a day earlier in Charlevoix, Quebec tying former President Barack Obama to Russia’s “annexation” of Crimea.

Trump suggested Obama could have done more about Russia’s misdeeds when asked about welcoming Russia back into the G7.

Rice called that a disgraceful statement and defended the Obama administration’s tack toward Russia.

“It’s a disgraceful statement,” Rice said. “The fact of the matter is Russia had invaded Georgia. It then had invaded Ukraine. We rallied the entire European Union and many other partners to impose tough sanctions on Russia for its annexation. We supported the Ukrainian government to build up its defensive military capacity, and along with our G7 partners, we agreed that Russia should no longer be part of this community of the G8.”

“That’s outrageous,” she added. “The United States has long upheld international law. It was the most brazen violation of another country’s sovereignty that’s occurred in recent years. For the president of the United States to blame his predecessor rather than to understand that Russia is our adversary — Russia has taken on behavior that is absolutely reprehensible, including being responsible for shooting civilian aircraft out of the sky and killing hundreds of people. For the president of the United States to suggest that all is forgotten, that that doesn’t matter, that we are fine with one country annexing another country’s sovereign territory and that we should just welcome them back with welcome arms into a community of democracies is outrageous.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.