Trump floats 2nd Putin summit; some skeptical

US President Donald Trump's plan on Thursday to invite his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Washington for a second meeting in the fall was opposed by some lawmakers who want to learn more about their first summit in Helsinki on Monday.

"I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more," Trump tweeted on Thursday. "There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems...but they can ALL be solved!"

Later in the day, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders confirmed in a Twitter post that Trump had directed national security adviser John Bolton to issue the invitation.

Several Democratic senators were quick to voice their opposition to a second summit.

"Until we know what happened at that two-hour meeting in Helsinki, the president should have no more one-on-one interactions with Putin. In the United States, in Russia, or anywhere else," US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado questioned what commitments Trump made to prompt a second meeting in Washington.

"The administration needs to brief all senators immediately on what happened during the Trump-Putin meeting," the Democrat said on Twitter.

Bennet said that the Trump administration needs an actual strategy to counter "Russian aggression and information warfare", and "Welcoming Putin to the White House should not be part of it."

Senate Republicans also were attempting to dissuade Trump from holding another summit with Putin. When asked about the possibility of a second summit, Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas hung his head and quipped, "maybe in a year or two", thehill.com reported on Thursday.

Steven Pifer, nonresident senior fellow on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said that with the Helsinki summit concluded, the hope has to be that follow-on discussions between US and Russian officials will tackle the problems that burden the bilateral relationship and produce ways to resolve some problems.

"One such area is arms control," Pifer said.

Also on Thursday, the US Senate voted 98-0 on a resolution opposing turning over Americans, including former ambassador Michael McFaul, to Russia for questioning.

It was a formal rebuke to Trump, who touted the offer at the Helsinki summit with Putin.

Moments before the Senate vote, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump "disagrees" with Putin's offer to allow US access to Russians accused of interfering in the 2016 election in exchange for interviews of Americans the Kremlin accuses of unspecified crimes.

"It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it," Sanders said in a statement. "Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt."

However, another resolution, from independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont seeking to have the Senate protect US elections systems from Russian interference, was blocked by Senator Rand Paul.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said that "Trump derangement syndrome" had officially come to the Senate. "The hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance," he said on Thursday.

Republicans also blocked a move pushed by Democratic lawmakers to subpoena the notes of the State Department interpreter who translated for Trump or compel her to testify.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com