The United States is not prepared to defend itself against Russian meddling in this year's midterm elections because President Donald Trump has not taken enough action against Moscow, Sen. Ben Cardin said Wednesday.
"The way our re-election system works, the way it is so open, you need to be sophisticated in your defense," the Maryland Democrat and senior party member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN "New Day" co-host Alisyn Camerota.
The leaders of Germany and France have taken action, said Cardin, and their moves were effective.
"Their leaders recognized the risk and took action," the senator said. "President Trump has not."
Cardin said he did not hear "much" about Russia in Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday, and he believes more should have been said.
"Russia is a major security threat to the United States of America," said Cardin. "It is very likely they will be involved in our 2018 elections."
Trump refused earlier this week to implement the sanctions the Senate sought against Russia for its actions during the 2016 election, and Cardin said "one can speculate" why that happened.
"It is clear that Mr. Trump believes that he has a good relationship with Mr. [Vladimir] Putin," said Cardin, noting that the president has said he believes Putin when he said he did not interfere in the election.
Camerota said the State Department has sided with Trump, saying they believe Russia has gotten the message from the threat of sanctions, and poses no further threat, but Cardin replied that that idea is "absolutely false."
"Our intelligence community tells us Mr. Putin is still very, very active in the United States," said Cardin.
There are several things Trump could be doing, including working with social media companies so there is complete disclosure with foreign interests, said Cardin. Facebook has announced moves, he conceded, but "not the president.'
"There is no policy to try to protect our free election system, no efforts made to deal with Russia's cyber activities," said Cardin.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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