[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5028-S5029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Trump-Putin Summit

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday, President Trump went through a 
walk back. President Trump's walk back performance was pathetic. It was 
weak, insincere, and thoroughly unconvincing. The President read a 
scripted clarification yesterday like he was in a hostage situation. 
All you had to do was look at his face. He couldn't even fully commit 
to it, adding off-the-cuff that other people could also be responsible 
for election interference in 2016. That is hardly a walk back, and it 
was concerning only one particular comment. The President did not 
address his lavish praise for Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Is he going 
to walk that back? He blamed both countries--the United States and 
Russia--for the sour relations between us. Is he going to walk that 
back? He said U.S. stupidity and foolishness, not Russian aggression, 
was the reason our relationship with Russia was so bad. Is he going to 
walk that back? He did not address his brazen attacks on the FBI while 
on foreign soil. Is he going to walk that back?
  Now, late last night and this morning, the President is back to 
celebrating his meeting with Putin. He is walking back the walk back. 
That is what he did this morning. This is like Charlottesville redux. 
We all know what the President really thought. We know what he thought 
at Charlottesville. The walk back was unconvincing, and he went back to 
his old ways. We know what he thought at Helsinki. The walk back was 
unconvincing. And now, with his tweets this morning, he is back to his 
old ways.
  The only reason there was a walk back is that the President was 
forced by pressure from many of my Republican friends here, from his 
allies in the media, and his own White House staff. They all pressured 
him to give that temporary walk back. But it is clear from today's 
tweets that he doesn't mean it, that he doesn't believe it, and, 
frankly, neither does anybody else. It is clear that he still believes 
President Putin over the consensus of the American intelligence 
community, and that puts Americans' security gravely at risk.
  The President's reluctant, ham-handed, half-hearted ``clarification'' 
yesterday--almost entirely reversed this morning--is woefully 
inadequate. His behavior in Helsinki continues to demand a response 
from Congress, and there are many things we can do. But later this 
morning, if anything is true to form, the President will hold a Cabinet 
meeting, and his advisers will shower him with thanks and praise--this 
is what he craves--and will provide, perhaps, another version of what 
happened in Helsinki.
  Given what happened in Helsinki and given that the President's walk 
back was so weak, there are several things we as a Congress can and 
should do. Talking the talk is not enough. Walking the walk is what is 
so important here. We need to act, not simply say ``tsk, tsk; bad 
President'' and then go back to business as usual, because the American 
polity, the American security, and the view of America in the eyes of 
the world have taken a severe setback. It is up to us in the Congress 
to try to undo that.
  I mentioned a whole host of actions this body can take to counter 
Russia's malign activity, punish Putin for interfering in our 
elections, prevent him from doing it again, and ensure that the 
President is doing what is necessary to stand up for American 
interests. The Senate is not powerless to take action in the wake of 
President Trump's indefensible performance at his summit with Vladimir 
Putin. Let me reiterate and suggest some things we should do, and I 
believe we should do all of these.
  First, our Republican colleagues need to join us in demanding 
immediate public testimony from the President's national security 
team--those who were in Helsinki and those who would have knowledge of 
what happened in Helsinki.
  We need to have immediate public testimony from Secretary Pompeo, 
from DNI Director Coats, and from Ambassador Huntsman.
  Above all, we need the translator who was present at the one-on-one 
meeting with President Putin to testify openly before Congress. That is 
not usually done, but there are almost always other people in the room, 
so you don't need the translator. But for some reason--a reason that 
Americans and the world are wondering about--President Trump wanted no 
one else in the room. Having the translator come testify and tell us 
what happened there is an imperative. It is so important. It is rare 
for translators to come before Congress, but in this case, it is 
warranted--A, because no one else was in the room, by the President's 
direction, and B, because what happened there might have been so 
important, given what happened in public a few short hours afterward. 
The translator works for the Federal Government, works for the 
taxpayers, and may be the only person who can accurately report what 
President Trump said to President Putin behind closed doors, what 
concessions were made to Vladimir Putin. We want to know. Did the 
President make concessions that hurt our national security? What did he 
agree to?
  Congress has a duty to conduct responsible oversight of the executive 
branch, particularly after what the President did in Helsinki. The 
President's summit calls for oversight. Having these people--
particularly the translator--come testify is important. I understand 
Secretary Pompeo will appear before the Foreign Relations Committee 
next week, which is good, but we need to hear from others, including 
the translator. I urge Leader McConnell and his leadership team to 
immediately request a hearing of the people I mentioned.

  Second, the Republican leadership should soon place on the floor--
ASAP--bipartisan legislation, led by Senators Booker, Graham, Coons, 
and Tillis, to protect the special counsel from political interference. 
This legislation passed out of the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan 
support. It has four sponsors--two Democrats, two Republicans. If 
Leader McConnell is serious about the checks and balances and if what 
he said in the last day or two were not just meaningless words, he will 
put this legislation on the floor. It will pass.
  Alongside demanding testimony from the President's national security 
team, passing legislation to protect the special counsel is probably 
the most important thing this body could do to ensure that President 
Trump's recklessness does not precipitate a constitutional crisis.
  Third, we should ratchet up sanctions on Putin and his cronies, not

[[Page S5029]]

water them down. The sanctions this body passed by an overwhelming 
bipartisan margin of 98 to 2--and I salute Leader McConnell; he helped 
to bring it to the floor even though the President didn't like it--have 
not yet been fully implemented by the Trump administration. On our 
side, Senators Menendez and Van Hollen have some very good ideas about 
sanctions, and we should act on them.
  Fourth, our Republican colleagues can and should insist that the 
President finally release his tax returns. We all know that the 
President broke decades of practice when he didn't release those 
returns--so damaging because his economic interests outside of the 
government are so large, complicated, and varied and so important 
because he deals with international finance in these situations.
  There was no good reason not to release his tax returns then. Yet 
President Trump's inexplicable behavior in Helsinki has many Americans 
asking: What does Putin have over him that he is behaving in a way that 
is, basically, inexplicable by any rational, logical line of thinking? 
That is why his tax returns will be so important. We should pass 
legislation that requires the President to release his tax returns. It 
was important before, but it is much more important now, after 
Helsinki.
  Fifth, the Republicans should demand with us that the President 
insist the 12 Russians who have been indicted for our election 
interference and information warfare be handed over. Putin may not do 
it, but at least we ought to show how serious we are as a country. The 
President ought to show how alarmed he is that this happened, and the 
best way to do that is for our Republican colleagues to join with us. 
They will have more influence than we will have in asking him to do so.
  Finally, we should have bipartisan legislation on election security. 
Together, in a bipartisan way, with the help of my friend from 
Tennessee--a senior member of Appropriations--in the last omnibus bill, 
we passed $380 million for election security. As I understand it, that 
money is now being sent out to help the States, but we have to do more. 
There is bipartisan legislation. Senators Klobuchar and Lankford and 
Senators Van Hollen and Rubio have good legislation that could help 
beef up our election security. We ought to move on it.
  Our country--our cyber networks and our election systems--is under 
constant attack from adversaries like the Russians. There is bipartisan 
consensus that we must harden our election infrastructure. This has led 
to the legislation I mentioned by Klobuchar, Lankford, Van Hollen, and 
Rubio. There is other legislation by Senators Harris and Wyden. I urge 
the Republican leader to let us move on one or more of these bills.
  We should do all of these things, not just one or two--all of them. I 
can't think of a logical reason not to do any of them other than out of 
fear of offending the President. Times like these call for us to do 
more. We have already heard some of our Republican colleagues say 
``let's move on'' after what the President said yesterday--as I 
mentioned, his so-called walk back was not a walk back at all--and that 
if we cared about our Nation's security, we would move forward.
  The final thing I would say to my Republican colleagues is this: This 
is a moment that will be remembered in American history. It is not 
going away. This is a moment that will be remembered next week, next 
month, in November of 2018, in November of 2020, and way beyond. The 
Helsinki summit is now an unalterable fact in American history--a 
moment when, unfortunately, an American President humiliated his own 
country and himself before a foreign dictator. It was a terrible sign 
of weakness by this President, and it, unfortunately, weakens the 
office he holds.
  Yet it can be remembered as a moment when a bipartisan majority in 
Congress--Democrats and Republicans in their dropping all trappings of 
party--links arms and stands up for our country after our President has 
refused to do so. Let's hope it is. Let's hope it is.