Chris Van Hollen

The difference is now we have a great departure in what has been a bipartisan tradition in how the United States speaks about these issues.

A free press is absolutely essential and we do set the example in the United States in so many different places and in so many different ways.

I want to thank all our witnesses for your service to our country and your testimony here today and I think you have all made the points very well that Senator John McCain outlined in his op-ed piece in the New York Times, the integral…

That is why Congress must now act by undertaking a comprehensive, bipartisan investigation of Russia's actions.

One of President Trump's fundamental responsibilities as President is to defend our country from foreign aggression.

I support many of the goals of the proposed bipartisan Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017.

He has failed to criticize President Putin for this brazen attack on our democracy.

This is a blatant, unprecedented, and deadly serious attack on democracy, and that is why we need a vigorous bipartisan investigation by the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

The response by President Trump to Russia's actions has been extremely disappointing.

President Trump's response to Russian interference in the elections, however, has been extremely disappointing.

Sanctions are one of the most important instruments we have to contain Russian power and eventually--and this may take quite a long time--roll back Putin's territorial aggression.

But that is the unfortunate reality with President Trump's administration, and it is why Congress must now take the lead on the sanctions issue on a bipartisan basis.

The United States has every right to sanction those Russian individuals and firms who have carried out hacking attacks during our election campaign.

I think there is a growing consensus, at least in the Congress, that we need to not only codify the existing sanctions...

Sanctions alone cannot contain Russian power, but we know that they can act in concert with other measures.

President Trump should want to be in a position of strength and not weakness, and right now he is in a position of weakness.

There is absolutely no way the Egyptian people bargained for the kind of repressive regime that they have today, 60,000 political prisoners, journalists being locked up.

I strongly support and my predecessor, Senator Mikulski, was a champion of the Hubble Telescope and its follow-on, the James Webb Telescope, but also understood the importance of Earth science.

And, you know, the eureka moment happened several years ago and we have been pulling these things together.

I worry very much about this false equivalence that President Trump has created between the United States and Russia under Vladimir Putin.

It is important that we always distinguish between actions of the Putin regime and the will of the Russian people.

I have talked to President Bush personally about this, and he thought it was a miscalculation in terms of looking into Putin's soul, that he regrets that.

Thank you for being here to tell the truth, even at great personal risk.

I do not think there is any equivalence between a system of government based on the rule of law and democratic elections and a corrupt autocracy that is Vladimir Putin's regime.

It is false equivalence to draw a comparison between the democratic system in the United States with all its imperfections, but nevertheless, a system devoted to democracy and personal freedom, that it is a false equivalence to compare…