[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 43 (Monday, March 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1760-S1761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



           Calling for an Independent, Bipartisan Commission

  Mr. President, I have been coming to the floor recently to discuss 
the Russian involvement in our last Presidential election. Remember 
that 2 months ago, some 14 different intelligence agencies all came to 
the same conclusion--that Vladimir Putin and the Russians were trying 
to impact the outcome of the Presidential election.
  The intelligence reports, which were unclassified and available to 
the public, said expressly that the Russian intent was to defeat 
Hillary Clinton and to elect Donald Trump. I quickly add, this was not 
a report from the Democratic National Committee; it was a report from 
our intelligence agencies. They went through all the efforts taken by 
the Republicans when they were hacking into computers and releasing 
information during the course of the campaign.
  I think this is serious business. It is the first time I know of that 
a foreign power has tried to influence the outcome of an American 
Presidential election. People in Eastern Europe and people in many 
parts of this world are used to the Russians getting involved in their 
campaigns, trying to run their favorite candidates and elect them. We 
shouldn't have to put up with that in the United States of America, so 
many of us have called for a real investigation of what the Russians 
were up to.
  I think we ought to have a bipartisan commission--an independent, 
transparent commission to look into the involvement of the Russians; 
otherwise, we are sitting ducks for them to try it again 2 years from 
now, in the next election. We know--and this is public information--
there were at least 1,000 people sitting at computers in Moscow, trying 
to hack into America to try to find enough information that they could 
release to influence the outcome of the election. They are not going to 
quit. They are going to continue to do this. The question is, What will 
we do about it?
  We have already seen the National Security Advisor to the President, 
General Flynn, resign when he misled the American people and Vice 
President Pence about conversations he had with the Russians. Just 2 
weeks ago, we saw that the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff 
Sessions, recused himself from investigations involving Russia in the 
campaign because of conversations he had had, which he didn't disclose 
before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
  Almost every week there are more disturbing revelations emerging--not 
by any honest or open disclosure, mind you, but about the curious 
alliance among President Trump and the inner circle and Vladimir Putin, 
if there were one. Key figures, such as the National Security Advisor I 
mentioned and the current Attorney General, were caught not disclosing 
communications with the Russians. Allied intelligence reportedly 
confirms that members of the Trump campaign had repeated communications 
with those thought to be in Russian intelligence. Close Trump associate 
Roger Stone appeared to have advance knowledge of when Russian-hacked 
information of Hillary Clinton was going to be released by WikiLeaks, 
something he presumably could have known only if he was at least 
discussing it with the Russian hackers.
  All the while, the administration has been saying nothing about 
Putin's actions, about this attack on the United

[[Page S1761]]

States, or about Russia's ongoing cyber and military aggression in 
Europe. In fact, instead of addressing and responding to this Russian 
attack head-on, the President has incredibly been parroting Russian 
strategic interests instead.
  Let me repeat that from my largely silent Republican colleagues--and 
there have been a few exceptions, but most of them will not come to the 
floor to even discuss this matter. The American President, the same 
party of Ronald Reagan, has failed to acknowledge this major attack on 
our Nation and has refused to take action in response. How is this 
possible? Why is the majority party so silent in the face of these 
major national security issues?
  There is a simple way to resolve these questions:
  First, President Trump should do what every Presidential candidate 
has done in modern history and disclose his tax returns. Why won't he 
do that? What is in there that is so worrisome to him that he has 
defied all requests from media and from others across this Nation for 
him to do exactly what every other Presidential candidate has done?
  The President should also be totally cooperative with any 
investigation about campaign contacts, including by his former campaign 
manager Paul Manafort; Michael Flynn, his former National Security 
Advisor; and his former foreign policy adviser, Carter Page. How do we 
explain repeated reports of these contacts between that campaign and 
Russian intelligence?
  The administration also needs to answer questions about Roger Stone's 
comments that suggest he had knowledge of WikiLeaks having and using, 
in strategically timed releases around periods when the campaign was 
struggling, the information that had been hacked by the Russians.
  Tell us why the administration has criticized hundreds by Twitter 
when there is any perceived slight--from entire States to Major League 
Baseball to United Steelworkers--but not the Communist KGB agent who 
conducted an attack on our Nation and democracy.
  We need to know why they not only repeatedly denied intelligence 
information about Russian attacks but, in fact, in July of last year 
encouraged Russia to hack into their opponent's campaign.
  All of these things are being watched closely by nations around the 
world. Several weeks ago, I went over to Poland, Lithuania, and 
Ukraine. One of the Polish leaders said to me: We're watching. If you 
don't take the Russian invasion of your Presidential election 
seriously, how will you take the Russian invasion of our country 
seriously? It is a legitimate question because the Russians are up to a 
strategy that we have seen over and over again. This time, the 
Americans were the victims.
  We need full cooperation by the White House. We need an independent 
commission. I have suggested we pick people who are beyond reproach, 
people we can trust. I mentioned General Colin Powell, a man who served 
our country so honorably in the military, then served in the Republican 
White House, and then served as a Republican Secretary of State. I 
would accept Colin Powell as the head of a commission to get to the 
bottom of this because it is a national security issue, which he has 
undoubtedly had some background in dealing with in years gone by.
  There are many good people to turn to, but until we get the straight 
answers, we can expect the Russians to continue to try to find ways to 
invade our political process.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.