Congressional Record, Volume 164 Issue 120 (Tuesday, July 17, 2018)

[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 17, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4985-S4993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Trump-Putin Summit

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues this afternoon
to talk about the President's deeply embarrassing and disgraceful
meeting with President Putin yesterday.
But first, allow me to comment on what we just heard from the
President. A few minutes ago, President Trump seemed to say that he
accepts the findings of the intelligence community that Russia meddled
in our election. Well, welcome to the club, President Trump.
We have known since the middle of the 2016 election that they
meddled. For the President to admit it now is cold comfort to a
disturbed public that has watched him bend over backward to avoid
criticizing Putin directly. President Trump may be trying to squirm
away from what he said yesterday, but it is 24 hours too late--and in
the wrong place--for the President to take a real stance on Putin's
election meddling.
Amazingly, President Trump, after reading his statement that he
accepted the intelligence community's conclusion that Putin meddled in
our election, added, in his own words, ``could be other people also. A
lot of people out there.'' This is just like Charlottesville. He made a
horrible statement,

[[Page S4986]]

tried to back off, but couldn't even bring himself to back off. It
shows the weakness of this President. It shows the weakness of
President Trump--that he is afraid to confront Mr. Putin directly. Like
a coward, he tries to squeal away from it when he is several thousand
miles away.
What is President Putin going to take out of the President's actions
today? That the man is weak, that he is afraid, that he is cowardly,
and that Putin will feel he can take even further advantage of Donald
Trump.
The President is now asking the American people not to believe their
own eyes and ears about what he told the world in Helsinki yesterday.
Even in his completely implausible effort to ``correct'' his own words,
he departed from his text to again claim that the hacking could have
been done by someone other than Russia. If the President can't say
directly to President Putin ``Mr. Putin, you are wrong and we are
right; our intelligence agencies are right,'' it is ineffective, and
worse, it shows such weakness. It tells President Putin to continue to
take advantage of the United States because President Trump doesn't
have the courage, the strength, maybe not even the conviction to say to
President Putin's face what he tried to say a few minutes ago.
The President's comments a moment ago changed very little. The
question still remains: What will the Senate do in response? I have
seen a few of my Republican colleagues shrug their shoulders, claiming
they have done all they can. That is bunk. As Senators, we have a
responsibility and an ability--an incredible power given to us by the
Founding Fathers to check and balance this President.
As I said this morning, here are a few things the Senate can do
immediately in response to the President's disastrous summit. We can
ratchet up sanctions on Russia, not water them down. Sanctions we
passed 98 to 2 have not even been fully implemented by the Trump
administration. And now someone has inserted a loophole to water them
down in the House defense legislation.
Second, our Republican colleagues need to immediately join us in
demanding public testimony from the President's national security team
that was in Helsinki. Secretary Pompeo, DNI Director Coats, Ambassador
Huntsman, and anybody else who was part of that team ought to be
testifying openly, publicly, and directly to Congress. We need to know
this because, as frightening and damaging as the President's comments
were to the public in Helsinki, what he said behind closed doors is, in
all likelihood, even worse. Why did the President want to close the
doors? There are lots of explanations. None of them are good. Does
anyone believe that President Trump was tougher on Putin in secret? Why
else did he not want anyone in the room?
Next, where are the notes from that meeting? What did the President
agree to? Can we have the translator come in and testify? Was Secretary
of State Pompeo briefed afterward on what happened? Did he take notes?
Were any other members of the President's team briefed? The notes need
to be turned over to Congress immediately.
I am calling on Leader McConnell and his Republican leadership team
to immediately request a hearing with Pompeo, Coats, Huntsman, the rest
of the President's national security team in Helsinki, and with the
translator, so we can learn the full extent of what happened behind
closed doors. Our national security is at risk. It is an unusual
request for unusual times.
Next, our Republican friends must end attacks on the Justice
Department, the FBI, particularly the special counsel, and let the
investigation proceed unimpeded. The best way to do this is to pass the
legislation, authored by a bipartisan group led by Senators Coons and
Booker on our side and Senator Tillis and Graham on the Republican
side, which passed out of the Judiciary Committee.
Leader McConnell, if you are serious about checks and balances, if
you are serious about making sure President Trump obeys the law and
protects our security, put that bill on the floor now. It will pass.
Fourth, the President must release his tax returns and insist that
the 12 Russians indicted for election interference are handed over. The
President has refused to release his tax returns, but these bizarre
actions he has taken seem to indicate that President Putin has
something over President Trump, something personal, and it might be
financial. We need to see the tax returns.
Finally, we must move the election security legislation immediately.
Senator Klobuchar has bipartisan legislation. Senator Van Hollen has
bipartisan legislation. Senator Harris has legislation. We need to move
it. Leader McConnell has talked about it a little bit. Let's move it
quickly, but remember, the President still has control because the
Director of National Intelligence has the ability to put out this
report, and he is, after all, a Presidential appointee. I have some
faith in the integrity of Mr. Coats, but he may not even be there after
November, particularly given the way President Trump treats his
appointees. So that legislation is good and necessary, but hardly
sufficient.
I hope our Senate will move; I hope our Republican colleagues will
not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. ``Tsk, tsk'' is not enough
when national security is at stake. Action--bipartisan action--is
required.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Flake). The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to follow my leader and talk about
this issue of great importance.
Let me begin with something I cherish. I have a photo, taken on
December 1, 2016, of one of my children in snowy fields in Lithuania in
a U.S. military operation with NATO troops called Operation Iron Sword.
The photo is of my son taking the oath of office to become a captain in
the United States Marine Corps. He was deployed with 1,200 members of
his battalion on the border of Russia between the Black Sea and the
Baltic Sea, to protect America against a nation that General Joe
Dunford, the head of our Joint Chiefs of Staff, describes as our
principal adversary. These 1,200 young men and women were deployed far
from home, working together with a nation on the Russian border to
protect them and to protect our country.
My son was not alone with the Marines; there were also troops from
many NATO nations and Lithuania and troops from other service branches
of the United States. I hope you will forgive me for being a little bit
Marine-centric.
The Marine motto ``Semper Fidelis'' means ``always faithful,'' but I
think that motto applies not just to marines but to all who wear the
uniform in the United States, certainly those helping the European
allies counter Russian aggression and those 1.3 million people on
Active Duty today--``always faithful.''
After the last week, a very profound question has been raised. While
our troops can carry that and meet that ``always faithful'' standard, I
think we have some significant questions about this President. Would he
meet the same standard--``Semper Fidelis,'' ``always faithful''? Would
he meet it for this country? Will the Senate meet the ``always
faithful'' standard?
In the President's first year and a half in office, exercising the
responsibility to be a Commander in Chief, I would say he has been a
bit more of a ``disruptor in chief.'' We have had Presidents of both
parties since the beginning of the 20th century--Presidents Wilson,
FDR, President Truman, President Reagan, other Presidents of both
parties--who always tried to be Commanders in Chief, who tried to be
builders of security, builders of alliances. That is not the path the
current President has taken. He has tried to be more of a disruptor.
He has pulled America out of a diplomatic deal with Iran that allied
nations in the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran was
complying with. I am not aware of the United States ever unilaterally
backing out of a deal when there was a consensus that the other nations
were complying with it.
He has pulled us out of a climate accord that we reached with other
nations in Paris.
He has unilaterally decided that the United States would be the only
holdout nation not participating in a U.N. global compact on migration
to try to deal with the problem of migrants around the world.
He has loved to name-call our allies. It was shameful last week on
his trip

[[Page S4987]]

to Europe that, essentially sitting in Prime Minister Theresa May's
front office, he trashed her--one of our great allies. He trashed
Angela Merkel, and he has done this before to the Prime Minister of
Canada, the Prime Minister of Australia. Important allies of the United
States have found themselves being name-called by this petty man. He
has undercut valuable U.S. alliances. He described last week the
European Union and Europe as our principal foe. He has repeatedly
described NATO as obsolete. He has now launched trade wars against
allies of the United States, asserting that national security demands
that he do so.

The Presiding Officer and I were together in a meeting with the
Canadian Foreign Minister in the last couple of weeks. She looked us in
the eye and asked: Do you know how insulting it is that you would
describe Canada--with the longest, undefended border in the world with
another country, your ally in every war since the War of 1812, whose
troops are serving side by side with Americans in Afghanistan, and who
are fighting ISIS in Iraq today--as a national security threat?
We heard the same thing from Germany's Foreign Minister in the
aftermath of this parade of insults against our allies last week. In
the aftermath of using a national security waiver against our allies,
the German Foreign Minister said just yesterday--and these should be
painful words for anybody who cares about this country--that the United
States is no longer a reliable ally.
To top all of this off, if there is a new low--and it may be debased
even further tomorrow--it is the President's performance of standing
next to Vladimir Putin, whose aggression against other nations,
including the United States, has put troops, like my son, on the
Russian border to work with allies halfway around the world--far from
their families, far from their homes--and taking Putin's side over that
of patriotic Americans who are working in our national security
establishment and who have unanimously concluded that Russia attacked
our 2016 election.
For him to say ``Well, my people say they did, but he says they
didn't; I can't see why Russia would,'' what an abomination to all of
the hard-working Americans who are with agencies like the CIA and the
FBI and with other national security agencies who have reached a
consensus opinion that Russia cyber attacked the integrity of our
elections. To have watched this President stand on the stage publicly
and say that he believed Vladimir Putin over patriotic Americans who
were doing this work was a new low. They attacked us.
A President who would say there are good people on both sides of a
White supremacy rally when there were three people killed in
Charlottesville, VA, including two State Troopers I knew, is the same
President who would stand next to a dictator who attacked us and take
his side over the side of American security professionals.
So I return to the question. The Americans who wear the uniform,
whether they be marines or not, are always faithful. The President's
performance, especially in the last week, raises deep questions about
whether he meets that standard. Yet I think, for purposes of today, as
I conclude, the question has to be: Will the Senate meet the standard?
I don't expect anyone in the administration to check this bad
behavior. Some may encourage the President to do differently. Some may
try to check the bad behavior, but I don't think they will be able to.
I think we would be naive, frankly, to think that the House of
Representatives would check the bad behavior. The fact that the Select
Committee on Intelligence's investigation on the House side has gone
off the rails suggests that it will not.
The question is posed pretty starkly, and it sits directly on our
shoulders: Will the U.S. Senate take the steps to protect this country
from the destruction we are seeing right now?
There needs to be a briefing of the Senate as to what was going on
last week and what was discussed with Vladimir Putin and what could be
the justification for the horrible capitulation we saw.
We need to do all we can to protect the Mueller investigation and let
it reach its end point so we know who was culpable and how to protect
our elections. The Russians who have invaded our election system need
to be extradited to the United States. The administration needs to
implement the sanctions legislation that this body passed by 98 to 2.
We also need to grapple with election security questions. I was a
mayor and a Governor with boards of elections that ran elections, and
no one has confidence that this President and this administration will
protect American elections.
As I close, I will just say--and I have not said it in the time I
have been in the Senate, and I hope I never say it again--that I think
this issue and this time may well be one of the most important moments
in the history of the entire U.S. Senate. We will either rise to the
occasion and will show that we are always faithful or we will not. I
hope we will.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority whip.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, back in the day when I was a trial lawyer
and we had had a witness come to the stand who had made a big mistake--
who had said something that would hurt your case or, maybe, even decide
it the wrong way or who had misrepresented someone--you went through a
period of rehabilitating the witness, which meant, basically, asking
friendly questions and trying to get that witness back into a credible
position. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
This afternoon, President Trump attempted to rehabilitate himself for
his performance in Helsinki, Finland.
The President said:

While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts
of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of
Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way--the Fake
News is going Crazy!

I don't think that comment is going to rehabilitate President Trump
from his performance in Helsinki. It was sad, heartbreaking, and, in
many ways, infuriating to think that he stood within a few feet of this
Russian tyrant and said he believed that man, Vladimir Putin, more than
he believed the intelligence agencies--the Department of Defense and
the Department of Justice--of the United States of America. That was
what he said, and it was a moment that will not easily be forgotten. It
is not something he can talk his way out of.
He made similarly incoherent and jarring comments moments ago in an
apparent damage control event. He went so far as to say that our NATO
allies ``were thrilled'' with his recent visit during which he bullied
and belittled them.
In some moments, the President loses touch with reality. He believes
that we are suffering from national amnesia and that we can't remember
what happened yesterday or last week. We remember. The reason we
remember is that it is such a dramatic departure from the conduct of
previous Presidents and that it is such a dramatic departure from the
history of the United States. I think our President's sense of history
reaches back to the day before yesterday and not far beyond.
He does not realize, as President Reagan said so often, that our NATO
alliance is critical to the security of the United States and to our
European friends and to the world. He just doesn't get it. He doesn't
understand why that alliance is so critical. He belittles it. He
bullies the members. He picks some of our strongest allies and decides
to make them spectacles of his performance. That doesn't make it any
easier for them to continue to stand by our side, and it, certainly,
doesn't put them in a position of trusting us in the future if they
desperately need us.
My mother was born in Lithuania, in the Baltics. I have been there
many, many times. They are great little countries--Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania--and next-door, Poland. They have seen a lot over the years.
They have been overrun by Nazis and Communists, and they have seen
their freedoms be eliminated under autocratic rule. They believed, when
they finally restored democracy about 25 or 30 years ago, that their
only chance--their only guarantee of any future--was going to be with
the NATO alliance, with becoming part of Europe--with becoming part of
this great alliance with the United States.
Last night, I was with Gordon Smith, a former Senator from Oregon. We
both

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remembered a visit to Lithuania in 1999 where there was this rally,
this small rally, in one of the public streets in Lithuania. It was a
NATO rally or, as they called it, ``GNAT-OH.'' They were chanting in
Lithuanian how much they wanted to be part of NATO. They understood
then and they understand today that the NATO alliance is Lithuania's
ticket to freedom, that the NATO alliance is its insurance policy. The
NATO alliance gives it hope that there will not be another generation
of Lithuanians who will live in suppression and chains.
When the President belittles this and suggests that, perhaps, the
Baltics are on the table when he talks of Vladimir Putin, it strikes
fear in the hearts of God-fearing people who basically can still
remember what it means to be under the heel of the Communist leadership
of Moscow. The President just doesn't get it. He does not understand
the importance of it. He, certainly, doesn't understand Vladimir Putin.
To think that he would allow Putin to use what he called ``powerful
words'' and deny what we already know to be true says that the
President is very gullible.
What is it about this relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin? How can you explain this? Why would a President of the United
States be bowing and scraping to this Russian tyrant--to a man who has
a dismal record when it comes to human rights, to a man who led his
troops in the invasion of the nation of Georgia and who invaded Ukraine
and who took over Crimea, to a man who set up a situation in Syria in
which innocent people would die and in which their own tyrant would
succeed, to a man who invaded our election process as he did?
I guess what we are looking for now, as our minority leader, Senator
Schumer, said earlier, is an accounting of what actually happened in
Helsinki. This disastrous meeting between President Trump and Vladimir
Putin needs to be fully explained to the American people. I join with
Senator Schumer in calling for hearings with the President's Helsinki
team--with Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, and with Dan Coats, the
Director of National Intelligence and a man I greatly respect, who
showed a steel spine this last week as he witnessed the President's
turning on him and the intelligence community, and with Mr. Huntsman,
our Ambassador to Moscow. They should all be coming to Washington
quickly to explain what happened and how to repair the damage created
by President Trump.
We need to see a transcript of the one-on-one meeting with President
Trump and Vladimir Putin. If he were so deferential in his public press
conference with Vladimir Putin, what did our President say to Putin
behind closed doors? It is not too much for the American people to ask
for an accounting.
We need to make sure that the Republicans will join us in protecting
the Office of Special Counsel. So far, Robert Mueller's investigation
has led to the indictments of 32 individuals, and 5 have already pled
guilty. The latest included 12 Russian intelligence agents who were
specified by name as being involved in the efforts to undo our
election.
We also need something that is very basic and, I think, that all of
us have now come to realize is essential. President Donald Trump can no
longer refuse to disclose his income tax returns. He did it throughout
the campaign. He has refused to make a disclosure since. We need to
know his financial relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin's
oligarchs. There has to be more to the story than we know today, and it
is time for this President to come clean.
Finally, we need to press for election security legislation. We live
in a dangerous moment. I also agree with former Senator Dan Coats. It
is a moment at which the Russians will try to take advantage of us.
My last plea will be to my colleagues who have not spoken out clearly
on this subject--not to the Presiding Officer, because he has spoken
out, and I respect him so much. We need them to come forward and make
it clear on a bipartisan basis that we stand together when it comes to
foreign policy, the values of this Nation, and the security of the
United States. We understand that Vladimir Putin has been a tyrant who
has really made life miserable and who has killed many innocent people
in his rage against the West and against the United States.
Most of all, we need more Republican Senators who will join with
those in the past who have stepped forward and put country first over
party. I remember reading the history of the Nixon years and the
breaking point. The breaking point finally occurred when people like
Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, of Arizona, stood up and said:
``There are only so many lies you can take, and now there has been one
too many.'' He joined with several other Republican Senators and went
down to the White House and sat face-to-face with President Richard
Nixon. They sat directly in front of him and explained that enough was
enough.
It will take that. It will take that again for Republican Senators to
have the courage to meet with this President and tell him he has to
stop giving away the heritage, the values, and the legacy of the United
States of America.
Those courageous Americans back in that day were, of course, talking
about lies, corruption, obstruction of justice, and dangers to our
democratic system. They took the oath of office. It is the same one we
have taken to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and
domestic, and to, certainly, put party second to our obligations to our
Nation.
For their courage, we and history owe them a debt of gratitude. Since
yesterday's fiasco with Putin, only one Republican has spoken
specifically on the Senate floor about this crisis. He was joined by
the most eloquent statement by John McCain, who, because of illness,
could not be physically present. That is it. It is not enough.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise to urge this body to uphold our
solemn responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States and to protect the Nation from all enemies,
foreign and domestic.
I have long believed the President's words and actions have
undermined our national interests and our values, but yesterday felt
different.
As someone who has sat for 26 years on the House and Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, it was a day of infamy in the history of our
foreign policy.
Yesterday, the American people witnessed a supplicant President of
the United States capitulate to a brutal foreign leader on the world
stage. Far from standing up to Putin, President Trump was unable to
even acknowledge Russia's attack in 2016 and the continued threat it
poses today. Instead, the President reverted to his own insecurities
about his electoral victory and disturbingly subverted the work of the
men and women who lead our intelligence community.
I shouldn't have to repeat this, but I will, and I hope my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle are as unequivocal as well. Seventeen--
seventeen--U.S. intelligence agencies together assessed that Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered a sophisticated influence campaign
aimed at the 2016 Presidential election. Yet the President said he had
``no reason to believe'' Russia interfered, and I have no reason to
believe what he tried to clean up today.
Those statements directly contradicted statements from then-CIA
Director Mike Pompeo--who is now the Secretary of State--the U.S. Vice
President, Michael Pence, and the Director of U.S. National
Intelligence.
The President said:

I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I
will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and
powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an
incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on
the case come and work with their investigators--

With respect to the 12 military intelligence officers that the
special counsel indicted--

I think that is an incredible offer.

The only incredible thing about that offer is that the President of
the United States would invite the perpetrator of the crime to help
with the investigation. That is incredible.
Every time President Trump failed to stand up to Vladimir Putin felt
like a collective punch in the gut of the American people. It was
disturbing and saddening to see the leader of the free world shrink in
the face of a dictator.

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Just as disturbing is, we have no idea what transpired between
President Trump and Putin during their secretive, lengthy meeting. What
could the President need to discuss with President Putin for 2 hours
with no other advisers present? If President Trump said such appalling
things in public, Lord knows what he would have said to Putin in
private. We deserve to know what was said and what was agreed to. We
can't afford to be blindsided or outmaneuvered.
Just today, the Russian Ministry of Defense publicly stated it is
preparing to start implementing an agreement that the President
apparently struck in Helsinki with President Putin--an agreement that
neither Congress nor the American people have been informed about.
President Trump, to adequately protect America's interests, we need
to know what commitments you made to Putin. What specific topics did
you discuss? What were the suggestions President Putin made to you? Did
you discuss any changes to international security agreements, and, if
so, what were they? Did you advocate for the extradition of the 12
Russian intelligence officers indicted last Friday? Did you make any
commitments to the U.S. role regarding Syria? Did you press Russia to
return to compliance with the INF Treaty and halt its nuclear threats
against Europe? Did you discuss U.S. sanctions on Russia, including
CAATSA sanctions that this body passed 98 to 2? If so, did you commit
to any action?
Did you call upon President Putin to withdraw from Crimea and eastern
Ukraine so both areas can be returned to the sovereign Government of
Ukraine or did you ultimately give up on Crimea?
Did you discuss NATO military exercises scheduled for this fall? Did
you agree to roll back or change the nature of those exercises? Did you
discuss U.S. security assistance to Ukraine and make any concessions
regarding their continuation?
Did you raise the issue of political prisoners with President Putin,
including that of Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian filmmaker who has been
detained for 4 years on a hunger strike?
What, if anything, did you commit to? We need to know.
The President keeps saying having a good relationship with Russia
would be a good thing. Of course, having good relationships with
countries, in general, is a good thing, but those relationships must be
grounded in trust, in cooperation, in the values we share--values like
human rights, democracies, self-governance, and individual freedom.
We do not share values with a country that attacks our elections and,
by doing so, seeks to undermine our democracy. We do not share values
with a country that invades its sovereign neighbors and engages in a
brutal war with Ukraine. We do not share values with a country that
bolsters the Butcher of Damascus and is complicit in war crimes in
Syria. We do not share values with a country that assassinates
political opponents and jails journalists. We do not share values with
a country that continuously violates the international order. We do not
share values with Russia under Putin.
We take oaths when we are sworn into office. President Trump did as
well. Yesterday's behavior, from my view, was an abdication of that
oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States.
We have reached a terrible and historic low point in the United
States. An American President, it seems, has teamed up with Russian
intelligence against our democracy, our FBI, our Justice Department,
and our intelligence community.
Our President is more closely aligned with Vladimir Putin than he is
with his own government. It is unfortunate we have come to expect this
behavior. President Trump has made his fixation on Putin and his
affinity for authoritarians crystal clear, and America is weaker
because of it. The question is, Are Senate Republicans OK with this?
Except for the Presiding Officer and one or two other colleagues, from
the silence of many or the feeble comments of others, I would say so.
Are they willing to concede Russian policy to President Trump? Is the
price of letting this President surrender to a brutal dictator in
Moscow some corporate tax cuts and a Supreme Court seat?
Tweeting about being ``troubled''--troubled--is shamefully
inappropriate. Signing on to symbolic measures that carry no force of
law is a joke, and remaining silent in the face of betrayal is nothing
less than complicity.
It is time the Republican-led Congress live up to its constitutional
responsibilities. If this Senate is to respond appropriately, here is
what we must immediately do, starting this week:
First, the Foreign Relations Committee; the Armed Services Committee,
of which my distinguished colleague is the ranking Democrat; and the
Intelligence Committee, of which my distinguished colleague is a
member, must hold hearings on what happened in Helsinki. We have a
right and a responsibility to know what transpired between Trump and
Putin and how it affects American citizens. We have the power to compel
the administration to provide that information; we just need to use it.
Second, the Senate must protect the Mueller investigation and prevent
interference by President Trump. The President is laying the groundwork
to fire the special counsel. We can't let that happen. It is our
responsibility to protect the integrity of our institutions.
Third, the Senate must conduct real oversight of the Russia sanctions
that were signed into law last August. As I have said repeatedly on
this floor, the Trump administration is ignoring several mandatory
provisions of the law--mandatory. In all of the sanctions that I have
helped write, this is one of the first times the Congress came together
and didn't give the President waivers because they were concerned about
what he would do vis-a-vis Russia, and look at this--maybe that
foresight was very clairvoyant.
I and other Democrats have spoken out. We have sent several letters.
We continuously urged administration officials to implement the
sanctions. Where are the Senate Republicans, including all of those who
voted for this bill, except for one? Silent.
If you want to stand up to Putin, if you want to stand up against
Trump's capitulation in Helsinki, then we need to press the
administration to finally implement what is already in the law--what is
already in the law. We should do so today.
Fourth, we need to protect ourselves here at home, since it is clear
we have a President who will not. The Senate needs to take up and pass
the Protecting the Right to Independent and Democratic Elections Act I
introduced last month. There are also measures by Senators Warner,
Klobuchar, and others that would bolster our electoral defenses.
President Trump's intelligence community has repeatedly warned that
the Kremlin's dangerous interference in U.S. democracy is continuing.
Just days ago, the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, said
the warning signs are ``blinking red'' of further Russian cyber
attacks. He noted that we are under literal attack. Yet instead of
marshaling a whole-of-government response, President Trump remains
fixated on protecting his fragile ego.
Today is the fourth anniversary of the shooting down of Malaysia
Airlines flight 17 over eastern Ukraine by Russian-supported
separatists, which killed all 298 people on board--a devastating
reminder of the real dangers of the Kremlin's brutal targeting of
civilians and why our relations with Russia have been strained.
Yesterday, Putin said the ball is in America's court. Well, it is
time we take our shot. It is time we show the American people and the
world what it means to put country over party. It is time to show the
American people that we can be patriots and not just partisans; that we
will stand by our allies and stand up to our adversaries; that we will
defend our democracy, our institutions, and the values that truly make
America great.
Our President has proven too weak, too egotistical, too feckless, or
maybe too compromised to do it. It is up to us.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, as I and many of my colleagues feared, the
Trump-Putin summit was disastrous,

[[Page S4990]]

and their press conference amounted to a disinformation operation in
which President Trump played the willing participant. The propaganda,
dissembling, and denials are part of Russia's hybrid operations against
our country, our allies, and our partners that are an ongoing and
persistent threat to our national security.
By failing to challenge Putin's fabrications on Russia's interference
with U.S. democracy, its annexation of Crimea, its role in Syria, its
use of chemical agents against civilians, or its violations of its
armed control obligations, President Trump acquiesced in Russia's lies
and alternative facts and undermined our security in the process.
A low point was President Trump siding with Putin, over our own
intelligence community's assessment, on Russian election interference.
It was the unanimous judgment of the intelligence community that Putin
directed an attack on our 2016 elections with the intent of undermining
public faith in our democratic process. That assessment was just
reaffirmed unanimously by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Furthermore, last Friday, the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian
military intelligence officers on charges of ``large-scale cyber
operations to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.'' Despite
being briefed on these developments, President Trump chose to side with
Putin on election interference.
It is unconscionable that an American President, standing on foreign
soil, chose to play Putin's press secretary rather than take the word
of his own intelligence officials--career professionals who put their
lives on the line for the safety and security of all Americans.
President Trump's words hurt our national security. Nations or
potential sources may no longer trust the United States. They may hold
back in fear that their highly classified secrets could be revealed to
Russia, a foreign adversary, as Trump has done in the past.
Yesterday, President Trump also made a moral equivalency between the
United States and Russia. This is an unfathomable and dangerous break
from the actions of past Presidents of both parties.
President Trump's actions this week and throughout his Presidency
have undermined the once bedrock belief around the globe that the
United States is a beacon of hope and reliability.
Further, moral equivalency is a longtime Russian narrative used by
Putin to justify his continued oppression of his people and suppression
of democratic impulses within Russia.
On a more basic level, President Trump is undermining that which
makes us strong. The world order that the United States created after
World War II is something we have benefited from for decades. We draw
strength from our allies and from participation in international
institutions. The United States is not weakened by them; we are
strengthened by them.

The mere act of the two Presidents sitting down together was a
victory for Putin. Instead of taking this opportunity to talk tough and
call Putin out for his misdeeds, President Trump delivered rewards
without gaining any changes in Russia's behavior. This adds up to
weakness, acquiescence, and more. Nothing about Russia's behavior has
changed. Putin is still in Crimea. He is still propping up Assad's
murderous actions in Syria. He is still interfering in the domestic
politics of the West and undermining people's faith in the democratic
process.
This is not theoretical. Director of National Intelligence Coats
warned that Russian cyber attacks are threatening our government and
our financial institutions. He used very explicit language to say that,
akin to before 9/11, the warning signs of Russian aggression are
``blinking red again.'' Yet, instead of recognizing that threat,
denouncing attacks from Russia, and developing a whole-of-government
solution to counter the threat, Trump is cozying up to Putin.
In light of President Trump's dereliction of his responsibilities, I
urge my Republican colleagues to stand up for the security and
integrity of our democracy. Some of my colleagues have condemned
President Trump's performance yesterday, but clearer and more concrete
steps must be taken. Republicans must reject President Trump's weak and
damaging views on foreign policy. What we saw this week and throughout
this Presidency is an aberration that is unsustainable, and this course
must be corrected soon. Words of regret or sadness for a missed
opportunity are not sufficient in the wake of yesterday's display of
weakness and narcissism.
Republicans should join with Democrats to pass legislation to protect
the Mueller investigation and to ensure that the investigation is
permitted to follow the evidence wherever it leads and bring this
matter to a conclusion.
Republicans should join with Democrats to hold hearings and get
testimony about the President's trip and particularly what he promised
Putin during their private meeting.
Republicans should join with Democrats in calling on the President to
fully implement the sanctions act against Russia for its numerous
nefarious activities.
Republicans should join with Democrats and demand that President
Trump be interviewed by Special Counsel Mueller under oath.
Finally, I urge the Trump administration to at long last issue a
comprehensive strategy coordinating our military, diplomatic, law
enforcement, financial, and all other instruments of U.S. national
power to counter Russian malign influence, as called for in last year's
NDAA. We are waiting a year for a legislative mandate of this Congress
to provide such a report. Time is running out.
This is not a partisan issue. It is long past time for the President
to denounce the Kremlin's behavior and take steps to mount a whole-of-
government response to deter it in the future.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Johnson). The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I yield to my colleague from Arizona
if he wishes to be heard first.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. FLAKE. Thank you. I will just be a moment.
Mr. President, I appreciate the comments from my Democratic
colleagues and hope that more of my Republican colleagues will speak
about the spectacle yesterday in Helsinki.
I said yesterday that I never thought I would see the President of
the United States stand with the President of Russia and blame the
United States for Russian aggression. I said yesterday that that was
shameful. I feel the same today.
Today, the President said that the press conference had been
misinterpreted by the fake news media. I would say to the President
that we all watched the press conference, and it wasn't the fake news
media that sided with the Russian President over our own intelligence
agencies; it was you.
This body must stand and reaffirm that we stand with the men and
women in the Department of Justice who have brought these 12
indictments against individuals from the Russian Federation who
interfered with our elections. We must say that we stand with our NATO
allies and we stand with those in the EU; that they are not foes, they
are friends. We must stand up to the real adversaries we have. Right
now, Russia is an adversary. I hope the President will realize that. I
hope he will take the word of the men and women of the Department of
Justice and the entire intelligence agencies rather than the empty
words of a dictator.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored and grateful to follow
the very powerful comments of my friend and colleague from Arizona.
They remind me of our mutual friend, his colleague and partner from the
State of Arizona, Senator John McCain, whom we miss at this moment more
than ever. Senator McCain is with us in spirit, and those words remind
us that the threat we face at this perilous time in our national
history must be met with a truly bipartisan response.
The threat we face is every bit as serious as any in the history of
this country because it involves an attack on the pillars of our
democracy. We know that 9/11 and Pearl Harbor involved a

[[Page S4991]]

physical assault with immediate loss of life. Russia's attack on this
country in 2016 is every bit as serious and urgent.
In the words of the Director of National Intelligence, our former
colleague Dan Coats, this incident should put us truly on alert. Those
blinking lights based on objective and unvarnished evidence, as he put
it, of a pervasive, continuing attack should bring us together as a
legislative body and as a country.
This issue really is not about Donald Trump as much as it is about
our Nation. The summit in a sense realized our worst fears; indeed, our
deepest nightmare. At best, it was going to be a gift to President
Putin because it legitimized him and elevated him on the world stage,
even if no words followed that private meeting.
The truth is that it happened, and the President of the United States
was a puppet, a patsy, a pushover--in fact, an appeaser, in the worst
tradition of that term--on the public stage. The President put Russia
over this country. He failed to fulfill his oath of office to defend
this Nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He failed to put
America's interests first. In fact, he blamed America first. He blamed
everyone except for Putin and himself.
Now he has attempted, shamefully, to rewrite history--unartfully,
incredibly. He has said, in effect, that some editing, some minor
change in grammar, would allow him to escape the universal condemnation
from all sides of the political spectrum of his shameful surrender to
Vladimir Putin.
The question is, What does Vladimir Putin have on Donald Trump? We
will not know until the special counsel finishes his investigation. We
must do everything in this body--and this point is central to what we
are saying today--to protect the special counsel against the continuing
onslaught and assault from Donald Trump's cronies and surrogates on the
far right--the fringe of the Republican Party--who are seeking to
discredit the special counsel investigation; indeed, talking about
impeaching Ron Rosenstein and demanding documents involved in that
investigation. We must now pass the Special Counsel Independence and
Integrity Act.
If Donald Trump is serious and he believes that the Russians, in
fact, interfered with our democracy, what he will do now is implement
the sanctions that were made mandatory on Russia. He has violated his
duty by continuing to avoid imposing them. He will authorize the Cyber
Command to take aggressive measures--not simply defensive--and
penetrate and disrupt the systems of cyber within Russia that are used
against us. He will authorize the exposure and revelation of Russian
oligarchs' and Vladimir Putin's wealth around the world, hidden and
concealed--the result of their corruption in Russia. He himself can
undertake these measures.
If the Senate is serious about protecting the United States, it will
order that the transcripts and notes and any documents and the security
team who attended that summit come to the Congress in a closed briefing
and eventually an open one, under oath, so the American people can
know. They should be required to provide whatever they know about what
happened in that private meeting so that we know what happened and the
implications of what happened are truly known.
Just yesterday, the Department of Justice issued a criminal complaint
against Maria Butina. It followed indictments against 12 Russian
individuals. Maria Butina is a Russian agent who worked through the NRA
to influence and corrupt our political system--again, part of the
Russian attack on this country. We need to hold hearings now to know
whether Russia has been using organizations like the NRA and other
shell companies to illegally funnel money into our election.
I will close where I began. These issues transcend partisanship. They
ought to be put above the everyday issues that concern us. We cannot
say that we weren't warned. The failure to act and act now to hold
Russia accountable, to make them pay a price, to show them that we will
not tolerate--nor will our allies--this kind of interference in our
elections will mean they will do it again. History will judge us
harshly.
Our allies were never more important than now. They are victims of
the same kind of attack. Rather than trashing and beating them, as
President Trump has done, we should bring them to our side and express
to them, as this Senate did by a 97-to-2 vote, that we are committed to
NATO and that if one of us is attacked, all of us are attacked. In
fact, almost all of us are under attack right now.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I wish to start by thanking my
colleague from Connecticut for his words today and for his leadership
in protecting the integrity of our democracy and the rule of law.
When it comes to issues of national security and foreign policy, we
have had many vigorous debates in this country over the decades and
many important debates here on the floor of this Senate. There have
been deep disagreements over specific foreign policy choices that we
make as a country. But there has consistently been broad bipartisan
support for the view that the United States and strong U.S. leadership
benefit not only our interests but the interests of folks around the
world. That has been American leadership grounded in key values and
principles, including the promotion of democracy, universal human
rights, the rule of law, a free press, and the idea that America is an
exceptional nation based not on tribalism but a beacon of hope for all
people, as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty. This isn't to say that
over the decades we have always been virtuous or always consistent in
the application of these principles. We all know we have made many
mistakes and detours along the way, but until now, until this moment in
our history, the principles and values I outlined have been the
guideposts and cornerstones for American Presidents--Republicans and
Democrats alike--since the end of World War II.

With those guideposts, we have built some very important
international architecture: our alliances, international institutions,
and international agreements. But today, sadly, we have a President who
has gone absolutely rogue on the time-tested bipartisan tenets of
American foreign policy, whether it is the way he attacks or berates
our allies or when he consistently goes out of his way to praise
dictators like Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un or other autocrats around
the world.
I am not going to take the time today to chronicle the mountain of
evidence leading up to the events of last week that show already
President Trump's radical retreat from the kind of global leadership
that America has exercised since the end of World War II. We all know
that those views are shared by many of our Republican Senate
colleagues. Senator McCain has been very strong on that, as have other
Republican Senators. Others have said quietly what Senator McCain has
said publicly. This is a moment where everybody has to come together as
patriots, not partisans.
Including Senator McCain, we have a lot of Republican foreign policy
experts and independent groups, like Freedom House, that have raised
the alarm bells about this administration's far-reaching attacks on
fundamental institutions of democratic society, like freedom of the
press.
One thing we all know is this: We know the words and actions of an
American President have real-world consequences. Those of President
Trump leave our friends unsure if they can depend on us and create
openings and opportunities for our adversaries. They weaken our
credibility and squander our moral authority on the world stage.
Of course, the events of last week and yesterday are the ultimate
expression of this President's retreat from that bipartisan tradition
of American foreign policy--first, going to a NATO meeting and berating
some of our closest allies. All of us understand that each of our NATO
allies needs to fully contribute to NATO. In fact, these countries have
already made that commitment, but President Trump threw them under the
bus and diminished the importance of the NATO alliance.
Then, of course, he went directly from there to his meeting with
President Putin, but before that meeting, the President let us know
what his state of mind was. The President tweeted out: ``Our
relationship with

[[Page S4992]]

Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness .
. .''--not Russia's invasion or occupation of Crimea, not Russian
aggression in the Ukraine, not Russian activities around the world that
undermine peace and stability, and not Russia's attack on our democracy
in the 2016 elections.
In fact, shortly before he went to meet with Putin, he again invoked
a Stalinist expression, where he said: ``Much of our news media is
indeed the enemy of the people.'' That is something I am sure warmed
the heart of Vladimir Putin, who doesn't like any criticism, like our
President doesn't like any criticism.
Then he went in to this meeting and came out in that joint press
conference. What did he do? Standing side by side with Vladimir Putin,
he told the world that he sided with Putin over the leaders of the
American intelligence community on the question of whether or not
Russia interfered in the American elections in 2016. He said: President
Putin assures me that they did not interfere. He says it very strongly.
Then, he sided with President Putin over his own director of the CIA,
who has testified before Congress about Russian interference in 2016,
over Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, over Secretary of
State Pompeo, and over the very people President Trump said all of us
should trust in these important positions of responsibility. Yet, on a
world stage, he bowed to President Putin and said he trusted President
Putin's word over that of U.S. intelligence. I understand that today he
is trying to walk this back. He actually tweeted:

While I had a great meeting with NATO . . . I had an even
better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is
not being reported that way--the Fake News is going Crazy!

The challenge President Trump has this time is that we all watched
that press conference. The world saw it. So really, the question now
for us here in the Senate--Republicans and Democrats alike--is this:
What are we going to do? What are we going to do now that the President
of the United States has taken this position, undermining the
credibility of his own country?
We were worried before the President went to the NATO meeting, and we
passed a resolution here--that was a good thing--affirming our support
for NATO. Last year, over the objections of the Trump administration,
we passed legislation imposing sanctions on Russia.
Now we have to come together, as Senates have before--Republicans and
Democrats--to send a very strong signal that the United States stands
together in support of the bipartisan principles we have stood for
before.
We now know the President will not defend the integrity of our
democratic process. We need to do it, and my colleagues have outlined
many steps we should take. One step we should take is directly related
to future elections, because what we know from the testimony of the
head of the CIA, the head of the DNI, and the Secretary of State is
that they all expect Russia--unless something changes--to interfere in
our 2018 and future elections.
The 2018 elections are 16 weeks away. We now know the President of
the United States is not going to defend the integrity of the
democratic process. So we have to do it. One of the many things we
should do is to support legislation I have introduced together with
Senator Rubio, bipartisan legislation. It is very clear. It says to
Vladimir Putin: If you interfere in another U.S. election and we catch
you, Russia will automatically face very stiff sanctions to your energy
sector and your banking sector, and there will be a huge price to pay.
It is called the DETER Act. The whole idea is to make sure that
Vladimir Putin knows that the cost of interfering in our elections far
outweigh any benefit he may think he gets.
So I hope we will stand together as Republicans and Democrats to do
what the President of the United States will not do, and that is to
protect the integrity of our elections. Let's learn from the past.
Let's work together for the future.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, just yesterday the world watched as
President Trump, standing in front of the American flag, side by side
with Vladimir Putin, not only betrayed the dedication of the men and
women of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities but then
showered praise upon the Russian President--the man who directed the
interference of our elections.
This prompted outcry from Members on both sides of the aisle, as it
should. I read statements from my colleagues that were very strong in
condemning President Trump for putting Russia ahead of the United
States, using terms like ``shameful'' and ``disgraceful,'' and not just
from Republicans who bravely stood up to this President before. I heard
from Members of Congress and even from some FOX News contributors,
unable to twist themselves into defending this President at this
moment, as he so clearly undercut our own country. I am glad they spoke
up because words matter.
But do you know what also matters? Action. So now, I ask: What will
congressional Republicans do about it? Many Republican Members of
Congress are acting as if they just have a Twitter feed, as if they
aren't the party in control of the Senate and the House, as if they
don't have the ability to actually make a difference and demand change.
That is absurd.
The time for handwringing and hoping the problem goes away is over.
With the power to call up legislation and hold hearings, Republican
leaders do have options, and they certainly have a whole lot of
Democrats who stand ready and willing to help.
It is truly horrifying and deeply alarming that President Trump
failed to use that moment to push President Putin to end his attacks on
our country and our elections, and he failed to condemn the Kremlin's
interference in the elections of our allies; or Putin's support of the
brutal Assad regime and connections to chemical weapons attacks by the
Syrian Government; or the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean
peninsula; or the 2014 downing of MH17 over Ukraine, where 295 people
were killed; or the murder of journalists and opposition politicians;
or the use of chemical weapons; or the undemocratic authoritarian and
oppressive rule of the Putin regime and how it actively works against
our American principles.
Instead of standing up for our values and our national security, our
President defended Putin on all fronts. Instead of putting America
first, he performed Putin's bidding by attacking our closest allies and
trying to dismantle NATO.
Today, I know President Trump tried desperately to backtrack, but we
know where he stands, and we all heard what he said on the world stage
just yesterday. It is appalling, inexcusable, and unworthy of the
President.
So my message to every Member of the Senate and to every Member of
the other body is clear. It is time to strengthen the sanctions against
Russia for its aggression around the world and to demand answers from
Secretary Pompeo and the other members of the Trump national security
team, especially about what the President may have promised Putin
during their closed-door meeting, and for them to provide Congress--all
of us--with any notes from the meeting that may exist.
We need them to stand up for and protect the Department of Justice,
the FBI, and the special counsel; to insist that the President demand
the extradition of the 12 Russians indicted for their attacks on our
elections; and to pass election security legislation.
This is not a partisan issue. This is about defending the integrity
and foundational values of our Nation. This is about Congress doing its
constitutional job and holding the President accountable for his
shocking and repeated failures. This is about telling our allies around
the world that they can still depend on the United States. This is
about putting the country before the party.
Stand not just with Democrats. Stand with people across the country
by taking action to hold Russia accountable and to protect this country
from future attacks. Ask President Trump why he is choosing to defend
Russia and blame America, and ask what or who is motivating him,
because it certainly is not the American people, our security, our
values, or our future.
I yield the floor.

[[Page S4993]]

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to see President Trump's
clarification today. The Russians did meddle in our election. That is
the consensus not just of the intelligence community, but it is the
consensus here among our own Intelligence Committees of the House and
Senate, led by Republicans.
I will say that Congress has pushed pretty hard against some of the
Russian activity, not just the meddling but the illegal annexation of
Crimea and Russia's continued support of the Assad regime in Syria,
which has caused so much pain and agony. We have passed historic
sanctions around here on Russia. Should we have additional sanctions? I
am certainly open to that, but it is not as if Congress has not acted.
We have also provided, for the first time ever, lethal weapons to the
Ukrainians to be able to push back on the eastern border of Ukraine. I
pleaded with the Obama administration to provide such weapons, and they
never did, and this administration has done so despite protestations
from Russia.
We just funded $350 million or so to protect our electoral security
here in this country and to help our State boards of election to be
able to push back against what I am concerned about, which would be
interference in yet another election cycle in this country. I am glad
that was a bipartisan effort to do so. We have also built up our
military, including putting more resources into Central and Eastern
Europe and more exercises there to push back, including up-armoring our
armored vehicles there because of the threat we now believe is coming
from Russia, not just on the eastern border of Ukraine but throughout
eastern Central Europe.

This administration has actually expelled more Russian diplomats, I
think, than any administration at once, at least. In reaction to the
poisoning in the UK, we expelled more diplomats than any other country.
We also shut down a Russian consulate, I believe, in the State of the
colleague who just spoke, and these are all things that have happened.
The irony is, the actions speak pretty loudly, don't they? It is
unfortunate that our words have not spoken as loudly recently.
Again, I appreciate the President's clarification today. I think we
need to be honest. We need to be straightforward, and that would result
in a better relationship with Russia.