Chris Murphy: The President Doesn’t Understand How Serious the Russians Are About Manipulating Democracies

RUSH EXCERPT: 
BLITZER: "You’re a member of the Senate foreign relations committee. The top Democrat on your committee, senator Ben cardin, he released a very dire report today detailing what he set was the continued Russian threat of meddling in U.S. Elections. Upcoming elections in 2018. This year, 2020. He places the spotlight in his report directly on president Trump, saying, quote, never before has a U.S. President so clearly ignored such a grave threat and a growing threat to U.S. National security. Do you believe the president has ignored this Russian threat?
MURPHY: "Well, I don’t think the president understands how serious the Russians are about manipulating democracies and democratic elections. For instance, we passed legislation setting up a new office at the State Department called the global engagement center. This would be a center that would spend money trying to counteract Russian propaganda, not necessarily in the united States but in places like Europe where they’re trying to undermine our allies’ democracies. The president for months refused to fund that organization. He now is holding a hiring freeze at the State Department, which doesn’t allow for that group to staff up. So I just don’t think the president is serious about this. I don’t think he’s using the tools that Congress has given him to try to push back on the ways in which Russia tries to interfere with the united States. Our democracy and our allies’ democracies."