Conservative magazine calls on GOP Congress to censure Trump

The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, is calling on the Republican-controlled Congress to formally censure President Trump for his comments on Russian election interference during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The magazine’s editors wrote in an editorial Tuesday that they “were appalled and saddened” by Trump’s comments, including his siding with Putin’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 

{mosads}”His words on Monday encouraged the nation’s enemies, insulted its intelligence officers, made the president himself look like a fool, and thus brought disgrace on the presidency,” the Standard’s editors wrote.

The editors said that while a censure of Trump would “be largely symbolic … symbols matter.”

“It would be no small thing for congressional Republicans to declare, in a formal manner, that a president who coddles and defends an anti-American despot doesn’t deserve their support,” they wrote.

“Passage of a censure resolution by the House or Senate would bring no concrete consequences, but it would be a powerful statement from the GOP that the party’s leaders will not simply ignore or excuse a sitting U.S. president of either party openly crediting America’s enemies at the expense of its public servants — and of the truth,” the editorial reads.

Trump’s comments on election interference Monday drew widespread backlash from U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers in both parties.

He refused to criticize Russia during the press conference and sided with Putin over the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

“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.