Senate Democrats on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to press Russian President Vladimir Putin on his country’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election when Trump and Putin sit down for a formal bilateral meeting Friday at the G20 summit.
“It remains critical that you set the agenda from the start and make absolutely clear that Russian interference in our democracy will in no way be tolerated,” five Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Trump.
The senators said Putin “directed an attack on the most central tenet of our democracy – our election” and that not raising the subject “would be a severe dereliction of the duty of the office” of President.
“We believe it is crucial for you – as the President of the United States – to raise this matter with President Putin and to ensure that he hears you loud and clear,” they wrote. “Interfering in our elections was wrong in 2016 and it will not be permitted to happen again. We urge you to raise this matter with President Putin later this week. President Putin must understand this can never happen again.”
The lawmakers who signed the letter were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), who serve as ranking members respectively on the Senate’s intelligence, armed services and foreign relations committees.
