Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., called on the Trump administration to “apply pain” and “continue to apply pressure” to Russia to prevent the Kremlin from attempting to interfere in future U.S. elections.
“Once you know that they’re trying to interfere in our election system, what do you do? How do you continue to apply pain? And what I try to do is illustrate it with the Olympics,” Lankford told ABC News Thursday. “When it was clear that the Russians were doping their athletes in Sochi, the U.S. Olympic Committee responded by kicking their athletes out of the 2016 Olympics. They faced a real consequence for that, that was clear and was connected.”
“So my issue now is what is the clear pain that Russia will experience based on their actions? Because I don’t think they change the behavior until they actually have experienced some sort of pain,” he continued.
The Oklahoma senator said he would like to see the U.S. pursue a plan with two components: the first being continued sanctions against Russia, and specifically the package passed overwhelmingly by the Senate, and the second being a “cyber doctrine.”
“It’s something we worked with the Obama administration for years on,” Lankford said. “To have a clear policy that can be put out that if any nation—whether it’s North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, whoever it may be—if they try to interfere in any of our infrastructure or our systems through a cyberattack, we have a structured response that they know: ‘If you do this, then this is how we respond.'”
Trump has downplayed Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, frequently saying that though he believes the Kremlin played a role, Russia likely wasn’t the only country to meddle.
But unlike Trump, Lankford, who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was more explicit about Russia’s involvement and motives.
“It is incredibly clear that Russia was trying to interfere in our election,” he said. “There is no question on that, by any means, that Russia was trying to engage—trying to destabilize our democracy.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee is one of several congressional panels probing Russia’s interference in the election, along with the FBI.
Trump, however, often calls the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s meddling and ties between Trump campaign associates and the Kremlin a “witch hunt” and “fake news,” and has taken to blaming the Obama administration for not punishing Russia when it became clear they were interfering in the election.
But Lankford said the U.S. needs to be prepared to take action against foreign actors attempting to interfere in future elections.
“There is unfinished business from the Obama administration, that there was never a clear statement about the ‘if, then’ of cyberwarfare,” he said.
