Democrats Urge Trump Administration to 'Immediately and Forcefully Impose Sanctions' on Russia for Election Meddling

Senate Democrats want the Trump administration to officially punish Russia by imposing new economic sanctions on the foreign adversary for its continued efforts to subvert American elections.

The push comes in the wake of warnings from the Intelligence Community that Russia has its sights set on sowing discord in the 2020 election by taking actions similar to that of its meddling campaign in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. election.

A trio of Democratic lawmakers, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, on Monday insisted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin need to "immediately and forcefully" utilize the "range of sanction tools" at the administration's disposal.

"We urge you to immediately and forcefully impose sanctions on the government of the Russian Federation, any Russian actors determined to be responsible for such interference, and those acting on their behalf or providing material or financial support for these election interference efforts," the three Democrats wrote in a letter to the administration officials.

A potential recipient of U.S. sanctions, the lawmakers wrote, should include Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Doing anything less would be an abdication of your responsibility to protect and defend the U.S. from this serious threat to our national security, and to the integrity of our electoral process," they added.

Joining Schumer in writing the letter were Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking members of the chamber's Banking and Foreign Affairs committees, respectively.

The request for sanctions comes just days after the news that House Democrats were briefed about ongoing efforts by Russia to meddle in the November elections by aiding President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

Amid frustration that the bipartisan House Intelligence Committee was relayed the information and a concern that Democrats may try to use the information against him, Trump ousted acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

At the same time, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders confirmed last week that he was told by U.S. officials a month ago about Russia's efforts to help his presidential campaign.

The Democratic trio of senators who wrote to Pompeo and Mnuchin said that "it is long past time for the administration to send a direct, powerful and unmistakable message" to Putin.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who's been consistently criticized in the past by Democrats for blocking election security bills, acknowledged Russia's continued efforts to meddle in America's elections while accusing Trump's predecessor of failing to deter interference in the 2016 election.

"'The Obama administration's naive and belated efforts failed to deter or defend against Russian interference in 2016 and failed to provide substantive counterintelligence briefings to the Trump and Clinton campaigns," McConnell said in a floor speech on Monday. "By contrast, the Trump administration has been vigilant and appears to be providing timely warnings to candidates affected by foreign intelligence activities."

Trump has continued to disregard information from his own intelligence officials about Russian election interference.

On Friday in Nevada, he labeled the assessment by U.S. officials that Russia seeks to help his own re-election as "disinformation."

"They said today that Putin wants to be sure that Trump gets elected, here we go again. Here we go again. Did you see it? Aren't people bored?" the president said at a campaign rally.

"I was told a week ago, they said, 'you know, they are trying to start a rumor,' it's disinformation. That's the only thing they're good at," Trump continued. "They're not good at anything else, the do-nothing Democrats."