Washington (CNN) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has turned down a Russian request to meet with him to discuss Syria, his office tells CNN, making it unclear if any U.S. lawmakers will sit down with a planned delegation from Moscow.
This comes less than a day after House Speaker John Boehner similarly turned down a request from the Russian government to meet.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy would not comment on the declined requests. “We are still working on the visit,” Maxim Abramov told CNN.
The rebuffed requests come as President Obama is meeting with G-20 leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, in St. Petersburg. Russian leaders have been outspoken in opposition to U.S. military action in Syria and said that they planned to try to lobby against the mission by directly meeting with members of the U.S. Congress.
But so far, no U.S. lawmakers have indicated that they will meet with them when they arrive.
From CNN Politics
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Not a good sign. All we do not need is to become enemies of Russia.
this old fool has NO right to decide the foreign policy of the USA all by himself. Who does he think he is, Obama?
Hope the voters in NV are watching his arrogance
All they care about is starting a new war. They are warmongers who need to be removed from office.
He must still be negotiating his bribe. Harry Reid is a crook
Why turn them down? God forbid we talk rather than lob missiles first. Both sides of our political aisle are out of control
Good for them. The President is our Chief of State. If legislators start allowing visiting government officials to go around him (or her) the office itself will be weakened for future occupants – regardless of party.
I heard the Russians wanted to meet with Reid to find out how to push through legislation that 70+% of the public is against (ObamaCare and Immigration Reform) and to learn how to kowtow to union bosses.
It's funny how the GOP spent the past 5 years undermining President Obama at every opportunity and cost, but they now all of a sudden "know their places" when they need a skirt tail to hide behind. In any case, nobody should be conducting foreign relations work that's contrary to the work being done by our democratically elected president.
Perhaps the Russians offered to provide Reid intelligence evidence that the rebels used the chemical weapons and that the U.S. government was involved in the use of chemical weapons in Syria. If so, maybe the Russians will simply press the international community for war crimes charges against the U.S. government with that evidence.
These types of meetings need to take place at the U.N.
.
I think that is unfortunate. The same for John Boehner's refusal. It never hurts to talk and it does not cost you anything.
Staged story no doubt.
To everyone criticizing Reid (which I have done many a time), Boehner just did the exact same thing. I am sure they are being told or are coordinating their policy on this.
Sorry Franklin, Obama has already shown he is weak and that may be why they are turning to the Speaker of the House (Boehner) and now Senate Majority leader (Reid) for talks. Obama is a failure at every level!
The President and Congress/Senators are idiots. They do not seem to get that most Americans and the world do not share their views. We should vote out the politicians and unfortunately Obama is on his second term and does not care what we think. Lets just put ourselves in another war that we do not want or not need. Lets ruin the way the world views us and see how many more enemies we can get.
Oh my god he's an idiot!
I'll never understand why the people of Nevada have kept this guy in office for so long.
It was right for them to turn them down. They have NO right to lobby our Congress on anything, nothing. They have no rights how this country governs or what decisions we make on a military basis. And yeah, it is as simple as that. You want Putin to be running this country? You want the Russians telling us what we should or should not do?
You should never shut down diplomatic channels, its disrespectful. Why not talk? This guy needs to retire, as do most of our useless and inept representatives from both sides of the aisle. There shouldn't even be an aisle. Disgusting.
This is ridiculous. Egos in the way. Any communication between these two countries could help. Shunning them is a spoiiled brat mentality. I'm ashamed of the men in charge. Ridiculous. Make an effort please!
Rick, thats funny! Cold war ring a bell?
Do you neocons even realize that Boehner just did the same thing?
Jeesh....
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@FranklinSD...
"good for them"?
If you're worried about the office being weakened, maybe you should actually look at how much power the office has gained recently.
Obama was about to bypass congress again and take military action in a place where have no business being. The only reason he didn't is because this time he knew he couldn't garner any support through other nations or even his own voters.
Patton said it best. "We might as well fight the Russians now. We are going to have to sooner or later."
Harry who?