[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 43 (Monday, March 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RUSSIAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on a different subject--Russia. Despite 
heaps of evidence Russia interfered in our election, President Trump 
has hardly lifted a finger to punish Russia or safeguard future 
elections. This is a dereliction of duty.
  Over the last few weeks, the Senate has heard testimony from the 
DNI--the Director of National Intelligence--and the head of the U.S. 
Cyber Command. Neither had been directed by the administration to 
counter Russia's continued efforts to undermine our democracy. A report 
in the New York Times last week documented how President Trump's State 
Department ``has yet to spend any of the $120 million it has allocated 
since late 2016 to counter foreign efforts to meddle in elections or 
sow distrust in democracy.'' Still, the Trump administration has not 
fully implemented the sanctions Congress passed to punish Putin.
  Meanwhile, Russia-linked bots continue to sow division and inflame 
political tensions on social media. Multiple officials from the 
intelligence community have warned that Russia will try to interfere in 
our elections again. We have done nothing to harden our election 
security in anticipation of the midterms.
  Our democracy is under attack, and the President of the United States 
seems unwilling to punch back or even harden our defenses. It is as if 
an enemy naval flotilla were headed to our shores, and we didn't put up 
any defense. That is exactly what is happening. It is a new world. It 
is not a flotilla of a navy or planes buzzing along our coasts, but it 
is these cyber attacks and social media attacks on our election system, 
but they are every much as vital to America as our physical defense. 
Yet we hear nothing, nothing, nothing out of the White House.
  You only have to look to our ally, the United Kingdom, for an example 
of how a nation should respond to the threat from Russia. Just today, 
Prime Minister Theresa May went to the House of Commons to expose a 
likely Russian attack against two people in her country using a nerve 
agent. She demanded a response from President Putin and promised 
appropriate countermeasures if he refuses or the answer is 
insufficient.
  Prime Minister May's quick and decisive action is exactly what is 
missing from President Trump when it comes to cyber security in our 
elections.
  President Trump still has an opportunity. Over the weekend, President 
Putin rather ridiculously blamed Ukrainians, Jews, or other minorities 
for the attack on our election in 2016--another attempt, of course, at 
misdirection and distraction. In reality, Special Counsel Mueller's 
investigation has charged 13 Russian nationals with subverting the 2016 
elections--not Ukrainians, not Tatars, not Jews but 13 Russian 
nationals.
  Today Leader Pelosi and I, alongside Senator Feinstein and 
Congressman Nadler, sent President Trump a letter urging him to use all 
available resources to extradite the 13 Russian nationals named in the 
special counsel's investigation to stand trial here in the United 
States. Ensuring these Russian nationals stand trial in the United 
States would be a clear signal to those who seek to meddle with our 
elections that their actions are not without consequences. This is 
imperative to deter Russia and any other nation in the future from 
attacking our democracy. This is another test of President Trump's 
leadership and another test he is failing miserably.
  If President Trump really cared about our country, he would expand 
every resource in his possession to bring justice to these foreign 
actors who meddled with our country's most sacred democratic process--
the one enshrined by the Founding Fathers, embraced and even worshiped 
by Americans over the centuries with good reason.
  Now there is meddling in this sacred process and President Trump does 
nothing? Why are we not hearing anything from those on the other side 
of the aisle about that? You can be sure that if it were another 
President--particularly a Democratic one--we would hear howls, but this 
is not about Democrats or Republicans. This is about our democracy, and 
Americans inevitably ask the question, Why is President Trump so afraid 
to do anything about Putin?
  I yield the floor.

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