Thread: U.S. Senator Vows To Punish Russia For Alleged Election Meddling

U.S. Senator Vows To Punish Russia For Alleged Election Meddling

Feb 19, 2017 6:45 am
Munich, Germany

MUNICH, Germany -- U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has vowed to seek increased punishments against Russia for its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election, saying that “2017 is going to be the year of kicking Russian ass in Congress.”

Graham (Republican-South Carolina), spoke on a panel on U.S. foreign policy at the Munich Security Conference on February 19 along with two Democratic senators, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

U.S. intelligence agencies released a report in January saying they had assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an “influence campaign” seeking to undermine faith in the U.S. electoral system and denigrate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. It said that Russia developed a clear preference for Donald Trump, who won the November 8 election and was sworn in on January 20.

“My biggest concern with President Trump…is that he’s never really looked a camera in the eye and said that even though it was the Democratic Party that suffered from Russian interference, I am now the leader of the free world…and I can assure you that [Russia is] going to pay the price on my watch for trying to interfere in our election,” Graham said. “You have to say that.”

Graham said that when U.S. political infighting in the wake of the election dies down, Congress “will move on to other things, and top of the list will be sanctions against Russia.”

He said his hope is to win strong bipartisan support for a bill that would impose additional sanctions on Russia “for interference in our election” and to “put it on Trump’s desk,” adding: “2017 is going to be the year of kicking Russian ass in Congress.”

Murphy also said that U.S. lawmakers were “not doing enough” to respond to the alleged meddling.

“The fact of the matter is that Russia attempted to swing the United States election for one candidate,” Murphy said. “They have thus far paid a very low price for that interference.”

He said that Congress can play an investigatory role to “once and for all get to the bottom of the scope of that interference” and has the power to levy sanctions against Russia beyond those imposed by former President Barack Obama.

But Murphy said that Congress ultimately has “a much bigger role to play, which is to give the executive branch the real tools to use to combat the asymmetric warfare that Russia uses throughout the region.”

“We’d be fooling ourselves to think that the only response to Russian aggression is to just dramatically plus up the defense budget,” he said, referring to the Trump administration’s plans for more military spending.

“Russia uses its energy power, its ability to bully and bribe and intimidate” and other methods including “propaganda and information distribution” to wield influence in other nations, Murphy said.

He said that the United States spends 20 times more on the military than on “tools that push back against those other means Russia uses to project power" and that if that does not change, “We’re just never going to be in that game.”

“We have to step back and think about whether every American president is going to fail in trying to combat Russian expansionism, if we don’t [provide] some other non-defense, non-military tools,” Murphy said.

http://www.rferl.org/a/us-senator-vo.../28318347.html

I don't believe Russia had anything to do with the DNC email leaks. But even if they did, who cares? I thought it was great! Why would the US want to sanction a country for exposing the truth? Why is that not a public service? How is that any different than NBC releasing a private tape between Trump and Billy Bush, protected by a contract agreement, to the Washington Post? Wasn't that done to interfere in our election? Wasn't that done to try to end Trump's campaign? Didn't work, but that was the purpose of it wasn't it? To try to throw the election to Hillary?

What's the difference between the Washington Post and Wikileaks? What's the difference between someone in NBC releasing information about Trump and Russia if they did it or if someone in Russia did it releasing their find to Wikileaks?

Wikileaks said the information came from the United States and did not come from the Russian government. And Seth Rich who worked in data for the DNC whom Wikileaks knew for some reason ended up murdered right after this.

So everyone involved in this scam to blame Russia needs to watch their step seems to me because they might end up involved in a cover-up for murder.

They need to investigate everything that influenced our election Mexican drug cartels, Mexican government, Illegal voters, George Sorro's if you are going to do it; do it right. They can't pick and choose. The American people have a right to know.

EXACTLY!!!! Well said, posylady!!

Originally Posted by posylady

They need to investigate everything that influenced our election Mexican drug cartels, Mexican government, Illegal voters, George Sorro's if you are going to do it; do it right. They can't pick and choose. The American people have a right to know.

YESSSS!!!!!