Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate GOP shoots down talk of impeaching Rosenstein Most voters believe Kavanaugh will be voted into Supreme Court: poll Overnight Defense: 7B defense policy bill speeding toward finish line | Trump threatens Turkey with sanctions over American pastor | Senators offer bills to defend NATO ties MORE[2][3][4][5][6][1] (R-Ky.) on Friday voiced support for the White House's decision to postpone a second meeting between President Trump
Donald John TrumpWatergate's John Dean: Potential of Cohen flipping not 'boding well' for Trump Giuliani attacks Cohen over Trump Tower report: He's a 'pathological liar' US military plane leaves North Korea with remains of soldiers from Korean War MORE[8][9][10][11][12][7] and Russian President Vladimir Putin until next year.
"I think it was a good idea to put it off until next year," McConnell told[13] Kentucky radio station WHAS on Friday.
Trump's top national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement Wednesday that the next one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin will be held "after the first of the year."[14] He said the meeting would come after the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller
Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE[16][17][18][15]'s Russia investigation, which he described as a "witch hunt."
The White House sparked disbelief among congressional Republicans earlier this month after press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that Trump had asked Bolton to invite Putin to visit the United States this fall.
The invitation came days after Trump created widespread backlash with his one-on-one meeting with Putin in Helsinki, at which he refused during a joint press conference with Putin to condemn Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan
Paul Davis RyanSenate GOP shoots down talk of impeaching Rosenstein Ryan: Trump willing to be patient on wall funding FreedomWorks pledges to spend half a million dollars to elect Jordan as Speaker MORE[20][21][22][23][24][19] (R-Wis.) both later made clear that despite an offer from the White House to visit Washington in the fall, Putin would not receive an invitation to Congress.
Asked on Friday about Putin and a separate powwow with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, McConnell said that he doesn't "mind the visits."
"[But] I think it's important to remember particularly with regard to the Russians, that they really aren't our friends. They invaded Crimea ... [and] messed around in our elections," he said.
The GOP leader added that there would be "serious consequences" if the Russians tried to intervene in the 2018 congressional elections.
"And for myself what I've said is we better not see the Russians's hand in the...