Trump tweets Russia concerns; he fears meddling in fall vote to aid Democrats, he says

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to address Congress.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to address Congress.

President Donald Trump said in a tweet Tuesday that he's concerned the Kremlin will interfere in the November midterms to support Democrats.

"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election," Trump said in his Tuesday tweet. "Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!"

That's despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying outright last week, after the leaders' summit in Helsinki, that he wanted Trump to win in 2016. U.S. intelligence agencies also have determined that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump win, and the agencies have warned that there are ominous signs of more cyberattacks to come.

Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Putin will not be invited to address Congress if he accepts Trump's invitation to the White House to follow up on last week's summit in Helsinki.

"That is something we reserve for allies," he said.

Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also have shown no interest in holding meetings with Putin if he visits in the fall.

"The speaker and I have made it clear that Putin will not be welcome up here at the Capitol," McConnell told reporters Tuesday.

But it may not matter anyway. Putin's foreign-affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov threw cold water on the prospect of Putin accepting Trump's invitation to visit the White House.

Ushakov told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday that no preparations were underway for a meeting in Washington and there were "other options that our leaders could consider," such as the late November meeting of the Group of 20 in Argentina or another international event that both would attend.

Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about Trump's approach to the Russian leader. They rebuked Trump's comments during a joint news conference in Helsinki when Trump stood beside Putin and denied U.S. intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

In a statement after the July 16 summit, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats reaffirmed the intelligence community's findings and warned of Russia's "ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy."

Days later, a Microsoft executive said the company had discovered a spear-phishing campaign by Russian military intelligence targeting at least three candidates in this year's elections.

Trump has since clarified his remarks to side with the intelligence community.

McConnell declined to back up Trump's tweet suggesting that any potential Russian interference in the fall midterm elections would be designed to favor Democrats. Instead, the Kentucky Republican issued a direct warning to Russia to back off.

"The Russians better quit messing around in our elections," McConnell said. "I want to make that perfectly clear: The Russians better quit messing around in our elections."

Also Tuesday, House Republicans held a hearing on election security in which lawmakers criticized Russian interference and pointed to an indictment this month of 12 Russian intelligence officers. The indictment alleges that the Russians broke into Democratic email accounts and tried to penetrate state election systems.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy noted that the indictment said there is no evidence that the election result was affected, "but that was not likely for a lack of trying."

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina criticized Trump directly.

"Unfortunately, the president's recent comments at the U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki failed to hold Putin accountable for his attacks on our country's interests and deter him from future indiscretions," she said.

Other Republicans were careful to draw a line and not directly disagree with the president.

"I don't think anyone here denies the fact that Russia attempted to meddle in the elections," said Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga. "The issue of meddling is one thing, the issue of the president colluding is another and that is indeed a witch hunt."

Democrats said Republicans haven't done enough to keep the vote secure this fall. They asked for more questioning, more documents and more money for states to secure their election infrastructure.

"We need all of our Republican colleagues to conduct oversight -- not just use strong words," said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House oversight panel.

Earlier this year, Congress allocated $380 million to assist states with election security upgrades, and most of that money has been disbursed. Democrats want to continue the money through 2019, but Republicans have said new spending isn't needed.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, two senators introduced bipartisan legislation to impose new Russian sanctions.

Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a joint statement that the U.S. "must make it abundantly clear that we will defend our nation."

The bill would slap new sanctions on Russia and require a Senate vote for any proposal to withdraw the U.S. from NATO. It's being crafted after related proposals were blocked last week. GOP leaders called for hearings instead. Hearings are set to begin this week.

Separately, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said Tuesday that Trump's tweet earlier this week on Iran is a sign he is desperate to distract Americans from last week's summit with Putin.

On Sunday, Trump reacted on Twitter to reports from Tehran quoting President Hassan Rouhani as giving the U.S. an oft-repeated reminder that conflict with Iran would be "the mother of all wars."

In his tweet, Trump warned Iranian leadership, in all capital letters, to never threaten the U.S. again, or suffer the consequences.

Schumer said the tweet suggests a pattern in which the president uses heated rhetoric so that he can later pretend to ride in and save the day with a more measured tone.

He said "it seems as if the president's foreign policy is to commit arson so he can play the firefighter."

Information for this article was contributed by Felicia Sonmez of The Washington Post; and by Mary Clare Jalonick, Christina A. Cassidy, Jill Colvin, Lisa Mascaro, Tami Abdollah, Deb Riechmann, Frank Bajak, Alan Fram, Matthew Lee, Zeke Miller, Nasser Karimi, Amir Vahdat, David Rising, Aron Heller, Hyung-jin Kim, Lynn Berry and Michael Casey of The Associated Press.

photo

AP/JACQUELYN MARTIN

“The Russians better quit messing around in our elections,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. “I want to make that perfectly clear: The Russians better quit messing around in our elections.”

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