参议院民主党人希望特朗普政府正式惩罚俄罗斯，对其持续颠覆美国选举的外国对手实施新的经济制裁。
此前，情报部门警告称，俄罗斯的目标是在2020年选举中挑拨离间，其行动类似于2016年美国大选前夕的干预行动。
包括纽约州少数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)在内的三名民主党议员周一坚持认为，美国国务卿迈克·庞贝(Mike Pompeo)和财政部长史蒂文·姆努钦(Steven Mnuchin)需要“立即并有力地”利用政府掌握的“一系列制裁工具”。
三名民主党人在给政府官员的一封信中写道:“我们敦促你们立即对俄罗斯联邦政府、任何被认定对此类干涉负责的俄罗斯行为者以及那些代表他们或为这些选举干涉努力提供物质或财政支持的人实施制裁。”。
立法者写道，美国制裁的潜在接受者应该包括俄罗斯总统普京。
他们补充道:“少做任何事都将意味着你放弃保护和捍卫美国免受对我们国家安全和我们选举进程完整性的严重威胁的责任。”。
和舒默一起写这封信的还有俄亥俄州的民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗和新泽西州的鲍勃·梅嫩德斯，他们分别是众议院银行和外交事务委员会的高级成员。
参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默在2月11日关于2021财年预算的新闻发布会上说。
就在要求制裁的几天前，有消息称，美国众议院民主党人获悉，俄罗斯正试图通过帮助唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统竞选连任来干预11月份的选举。
在对两党众议院情报委员会传达的信息感到沮丧，以及担心民主党人可能试图利用这些信息来对付他的情况下，特朗普罢免了国家情报局代理局长约瑟夫·马奎尔(Joseph Maguire)。
与此同时，佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯上周证实，一个月前美国官员告诉他，俄罗斯努力帮助他竞选总统。
给庞贝和姆努钦写信的民主党参议员三人组说，“政府向普京发出直接、有力和明确无误的信息的时间已经过去很久了”。
参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(共和党)。)，谁一直以来过去曾被民主党批评阻碍选举安全法案承认俄罗斯继续努力干涉美国选举，同时指责特朗普的前任未能阻止对2016年选举的干涉。
“奥巴马政府幼稚且姗姗来迟的努力未能阻止或抵御俄罗斯在2016年的干涉，也未能向特朗普和克林顿竞选团队提供实质性的反情报简报，”麦康奈尔周一在一次现场演讲中表示相比之下，特朗普政府一直保持警惕，似乎在向受外国情报活动影响的候选人提供及时警告。"
特朗普继续无视自己的情报官员提供的关于俄罗斯选举干预的信息。
周五在内华达州，他将美国官员关于俄罗斯寻求帮助他连任的评估称为“虚假信息”
“他们今天说，普京想确保特朗普当选，我们又来了。又来了。你看到了吗？人们不觉得无聊吗？”总统在竞选集会上说。
“一周前有人告诉我，他们说，‘你知道，他们试图制造谣言’，这是假消息。这是他们唯一擅长的，”特朗普继续说道。“他们不擅长其他任何事情，无所事事的民主党人。”
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.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer during a press conference on the fiscal year 2021 budget on February 11.
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."
