Toomey: ‘We Have To Raise the Cost to Putin for the Outrageous Behavior He’s Committed’

CHUCK TODD: Let me move on quickly to something that the president said overseas, having to do with Vladimir Putin. He seemed to take the word of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, over the intelligence agencies. And he said this, he said, "He said he didn't meddle, he said he didn't meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask him so many times. But I just asked him again, and he said he absolutely did not meddle in our election." Why do you think the president wants to take Vladimir Putin's words over the words of former C.I.A. directors, just because they happen to work for a Democrat?

SEN. PAT TOOMEY: Chuck, I don't spend a lot of time trying to evaluate and analyze why the president comes to the conclusions he comes to. In my view, I think it's clear that President Putin orchestrated an effort to meddle and disrupt our elections. I think he does that routinely in Western democracies. I think he has a variety of reasons for doing it. I don't think there's anything at all that we can trust that comes out of Putin's mouth. I think he's a dangerous man and a thug. And-- look, I think that's the view of many of my colleagues.

CHUCK TODD: Has he been punished enough? Because the president has implied that, essentially, we've got to stop sort of confronting Putin on this. Do you think he's been punished enough, or the Russian government's been punished enough by the United States?

SEN. PAT TOOMEY: So my answer is no. And I think you've seen that the Senate has responded. For instance, our insistence on tougher sanctions against Russia, and a Congressional review mechanism attached to those sanctions, to make it a little more difficult for this president or any president to unilaterally lift those sanctions. No, I think we have to raise the cost to Putin for the outrageous behavior he's committed.