[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RUSSIA'S INTERFERENCE WITH AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, there is one other matter. I know my 
colleagues from North Carolina are waiting, and I salute them for being 
here in praise of a former member who just passed from their State, 
Billy Graham.
  Yesterday, the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, ADM Michael 
Rogers, testified that Putin's efforts to interfere with American 
democracy have not abated since the 2016 election and likely have 
intensified. According to several reports, Kremlin-linked bots continue 
to stoke political divisions in the United States via misinformation on 
social media. Here is what Admiral Rogers said:

       President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that 
     there's little price to pay and that therefore [he thinks] `I 
     can continue this activity.' Clearly what we have done hasn't 
     been enough.

  He is absolutely right. It is extraordinary, confounding, and 
dangerous how little the Trump administration is doing about Putin's 
campaign to undermine our grand democracy. President Trump refused to 
punish Putin after he took office, despite the consensus view of 17 
American intelligence agencies that Putin interfered in our elections. 
President Trump has still refused to fully implement the package of 
sanctions passed by this Congress with only five dissenting votes 
combined in both the House and Senate, two here and three there. 
Yesterday, when my friend, the Senator from Rhode Island, asked Admiral 
Rogers, the Director of NSA, if the Trump administration had directed 
him to counter Russian meddling, he replied: ``No, I have not [been 
directed].''
  That is astonishing. A hostile foreign power interferes in our 
election, continues to interfere with our democracy, is planning to 
interfere in our next elections, and the President of the United States 
is hardly lifting a finger. It is as if they were preparing for war and 
tanks or planes were lining up, and we decided to do nothing. Cyber 
attacks and manipulation of the news media are other ways that hostile 
powers attack us.
  People have to wonder why President Trump is so soft on Russia, so 
unwilling to criticize President Putin, and so slow to stand up for 
America and protect our democracy.

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