Five top Senate Democrats are urging President Trump to discuss Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two meet for the first time Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Mark Warner, D-Va., ex officio member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Jack Reed, D-R.I., and ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ben Cardin, D-Md., sent a letter to Trump on Thursday pushing him to “make absolutely clear that Russian interference in our democracy will in no way be tolerated.”
“We believe it is crucial for you — as president of the United States — to raise this matter with President Putin and to ensure that he hears you loud and clear — interfering in our elections was wrong in 2016 and it will not be permitted to happen again,” the senators wrote. “We urge you to raise this matter with President Putin later this week. President Putin must understand this can never happen again.”
Putin and Trump will meet face-to-face for the first time Friday in a highly anticipated bilateral meeting. The two leaders are in Hamburg, Germany, for a two-day meeting of the G-20.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster said last month there is no specific agenda for Trump’s meeting with Putin, and said the two will discuss “whatever the president wants to talk about.”
But Trump is expected to raise the annexation of Crimea, the situation in Syria, and Putin’s support for “hostile regimes” in Syria and Iran with his Russian counterpart.
Trump is not expected to confront Putin over Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, though many Republicans and Democrats hoped he would.
But the group of five Senate Democrats attempted to make a last-minute plea to Trump ahead of his meeting with Putin.
“The United States has elections this coming fall and additional elections in 2018. No candidate, Democrat, Republican or independent, wants to have President Putin and his cronies manipulating his or her electorate,” the senators wrote.
“And, it’s critical that both the Executive and Legislative branches of our government use every tool at our disposal to ensure that Putin does not believe he has a freehand to implement his manipulative program of election interference ever again. The upcoming elections cannot be a playground for President Putin.”
Four intelligence agencies concluded Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election, but Trump has downplayed Russia’s meddling.
“I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries,” the president said during a news conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
Trump has also called the investigation into ties between his campaign associates and Russian officials a “witch hunt” and “fake news.”
