Ron Brownstein: Important that Russians Receive a Forceful Message that Meddling into the Elections Is Not OK

EXCERPT:

BROWNSTEIN: "What we saw from James Comey and his testimony, maybe in some ways the most memorable moment was when he said Russia will be back. There has been nothing that happened in the U.S. in 2017 that would cause them to view their intervention in 2016 as anything but achieving their goals, or at the least, sewing disunity and confusion. We saw what was almost certainly another attempt in France. We don't know how far they are going to push it in the German elections. It is important from a national security point of view not only for the U.S., but for other nations, that they receive a forceful message that this is not okay. And the president, as Tony Blinken said, has made that tougher on himself, by conflating the question of whether Russia interfered at all with whether his campaign colluded with that interference. So is he capable of pushing back on that? We don’t know, based on whatever his personal qualities in a meeting, has he painted himself into a corner where he makes it very hard to do that. I think he has certainly diminished his ability."