Russia has been emboldened to target the midterm elections because it faced so few consequences from its actions in the 2016 presidential election, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday.
"The sanctions we imposed are not enough," the South Carolina Republican told Fox News' "Happening Now."
"When they invaded the Ukraine and took Crimea back, the world basically gave them a pass."
Graham added that if he was President Donald Trump, he'd call Russian President Vladimir Putin that "this will stop."
"'If you continue to interfere in our democratic process, we're going to declare economic war on you,'" Graham said he'd tell Putin, if he were Trump.
"'We're going to grind you into the ground economically and the cost of doing business in America is going to go up when it comes to your misadventures.' If you don't talk to Putin that way, you're wasting your time."
Graham warned that Russia's next step will involve changing voting totals.
"They actually can do that," he said. "We've had some demonstrations where they can actually go into a voting machine and change the tally. . . All I can say is when it comes to Russia, President Trump is not getting the results we want."
The president has been "awesome" with North Korea and he's "defined the Iranian deal as unacceptable, and I think the Iranians are afraid of Trump," said Graham.
But when it comes To Russia, that Trump is doing is "not working," the senator said. "He needs to be as tough on Putin as he's been on [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un."
The Senate Intelligence Committee this week revealed several proposals in hopes of preventing Russian interference, including having a paper trail for the nation's polling places. Graham said Thursday he also has legislation that would form a 9/11 style commission that would look at ways to harden the 2018 election system through the private sector.
"Right now, there is no federal standards when it comes to voting machines," said Graham. "The states are in charge of elections. That's fine, but I'd like somebody to build a voting machine that can't be hacked. . .
"Right now, there are no federal standards or state standards on how to protect the voting system from a cyber-attack. We need to build a voting machine that can't be hacked into or go back to paper."
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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