GOP Rep. Will Hurd: Trump should not meet one-on-one with world leaders

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 7/18/2018, 11:02 a.m.
Republican Rep. Will Hurd is advising against President Donald Trump having solo meetings with other world leaders because "too much …
Will Hurd

By Sophie Tatum, CNN

(CNN) -- Republican Rep. Will Hurd is advising against President Donald Trump having solo meetings with other world leaders because "too much is at stake."

The Texas Republican said having a clear strategy is necessary going into a meeting with other heads of state, just a day after Trump had a one-on-one summit with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin.

"Look, you need to have a strategy, and I don't think he should be doing one-on-one meetings with heads of state because too much is at stake," Hurd said Tuesday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

Trump was widely criticized for comments he made after the sit-down Monday with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. He has since walked back his remarks, but initially he seemed eager to accept Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 American election over the US intelligence conclusion.

CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Hurd, who is a former CIA officer and member of the House Intelligence Committee, if he trusted Trump's ability to speak on behalf of US interests.

Hurd responded by saying it "starts with having a clear strategy."

"I also think that many US presidents have made the mistake to think that they can reset our relations with Russia," Hurd later said.

He continued: "Russia is interested in one thing and one thing only, and that's re-establishing the territory and integrity of the USSR."

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