"You have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly than I've ever seen — an extraordinary press conference," Cooper said. Rather than reporting on what occurred, the anchor instead jumped into his own speculation moments after the press conference ended.
During the press conference, Trump reiterated his claim that there was "no collusion" between Moscow and the president's 2016 campaign and impugned Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe as a "disaster for our country."
"It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous what's going on with the probe," Trump said.
Reviewing the history of disgraceful actions on the part of American leaders, several Twitter users noted that it just might be possible that holding a press conference with a foreign head of state is not the most horrific thing an American president can do.
Chuck Todd was nearly as quick as Cooper to decry the news conference.
Many liberals have said the news conference was evidence of "treason," though it's difficult to see how two leaders meeting and holding a press conference — doing their jobs — could be construed as evidence of treason in any sense of the word.
Speaking about the US-Russia relationship, Trump said, "Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. Nothing would be easier politically than to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage, but that would not accomplish anything. As president, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media or Democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct."
Putin also dismissed the allegations of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, saying, "It's difficult to imagine an utter nonsense of a bigger scale than this."