Putin had 'free rein' to spew propaganda in solo press conference: Pompeo
The former secretary of state said he hopes Biden is able to address Putin's remarks after the Russian leader went unchallenged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to the press for nearly an hour after meeting with President Biden. The two leaders held solo press conferences, a break from the political norm, which raised concerns that the U.S. may look "weak" for not confronting Putin in real-time. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the decision to speak to media separately allowed Putin to "spout Russian propaganda" to the world without challenge.
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MIKE POMPEO: It's the strangest thing. He was allowed to go up there and spout Russian propaganda to create the context for moral equivalence between the United States and Russia on every front, whether it was talking about BLM or protesters or our judicial system. He talked about his protesters. When we have a problem here, it goes to a court. We have a system, a constitutional foundation. They have none of that.
And he got free rein to go on for all of that time, and, to the world, spout this propaganda without, to your point, an American standing beside him saying, 'no, that's not what we talked about. That's not right.' And making the case for American interests. I knew that this was the risk that was created. I hope that President Biden is able to confront this, even if it is just as an afterthought to what President Putin said just a few minutes ago.
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