Senate Republicans are considering legislation that would severely sanction Russia if it tries to meddle in the next U.S. election, one day after President Trump drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats for downplaying Russia’s interference in 2016.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday the bipartisan legislation may come up for a vote.
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“There is a possibility that we’ll take up legislation related to this,” McConnell, R-Ky., said after a closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers.
Republicans Tuesday were reluctant to criticize President Trump directly after he seemed to deny Russian election meddling during a press conference with Vladimir Putin on Monday. Trump walked back his comment on Tuesday, saying he misspoke and believes Russia did interfere.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were eager to distance themselves from the apparent initial Trump blunder and to show they are prepared to take a stand against Russia and will back it up with legislation.
During the closed-door luncheon, McConnell told Republicans there would be no unified GOP message, and that lawmakers should stake out their own positions on the intelligence showing Russian meddling.
But McConnell made clear during a weekly press conference that the Senate GOP believes Russia meddled in the election and they may take legislative action.
“The Russians need to know that there are a lot of us who fully understand what happened in 2016 and it better not happen again in 2018,” McConnell said.
Republican lawmakers said they back a bill sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., that would punish foreign governments or agents who try to interfere in an election. The bill includes sanctions that would be directed at Russia within ten days if the director of national intelligence determines it has been involved in election meddling.
“I’m very interested in the bill that Sen. Rubio is working on,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “I think that bill would send a very strong message to Russia about its ongoing and future meddling in our elections.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Tuesday he “always favors sanctions on Russia and we can’t have enough in my opinion.” But Burr did not comment specifically on the Rubio-Van Hollen measure.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who is a member of the Senate intelligence panel, said new legislation may not be needed to up the sanctions following the latest indictment of a dozen Russian officers accused by the Department of Justice of meddling in the 2016 election. Lankford pointed out the the administration imposed sanctions when other Russians were indicted for election meddling earlier this year.
“The administration already has the authority to be able to do that same thing this time again,” Lankford said. “I would be disappointed if they didn’t sanction those individuals the same way they did earlier this year.”
Lankford is writing a bipartisan election security bill he said is near completion.
Democrats praised the GOP leadership for backing a new sanctions bill. But Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., complained it is “hardly sufficient” and said Congress must do more.
“There are a lot of other actions that must be take as well because American security is at risk,” Schumer said.
