On the recordJuly 16, 2018
Mr. President, almost everybody in the world knows by now that the President met with Vladimir Putin today. While nobody knows what the two Presidents said in their private meeting, what they said afterward certainly should alarm all of us. President Trump refused, once again, to accept the fact that Russia, at Putin's order, interfered in our elections. What the President said was alarming, it was embarrassing, and it is unacceptable. We know Putin interfered, and we know he will do it again in our upcoming elections. This is from the unanimous report of the intelligence community of this country and was reaffirmed earlier today by the Director of National Intelligence, former Senator Dan Coats, who was President Trump's appointee. In its January 2017 assessment, the IC assessed that Russian President Putin ordered an influence campaign in the 2016 election, which was aimed at the U.S. Presidential election. That assessment described the campaign as a mix of cyber operations that were conducted by Russian intelligence services in its overt use of propaganda and fake social media accounts and trolls. Take it from President Trump's own administration. Then-Director of the CIA and now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged the Russian interference. He stood by the intelligence community's assessments, and that was a year and a half ago. He even said he had every expectation that Russia would continue to try to interfere in our elections.…





