Tell Your Reps: Should Congress Censure Trump Over Russia? Hold Hearings? Pass Sanctions?

What’s the story?

• Members of Congress, concerned by President Donald Trump’s remarks during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, are considering ways of pushing back against Trump, including resolutions supporting the intelligence community and censuring the president.
• On Monday, Trump said that while he had "great confidence" in the U.S. intelligence community, he did not “see any reason why it would be” Russia who meddled with the 2016 presidential campaign. But at the White House on Tuesday, Trump clarified that what he meant to say was he didn't see any reason why Russia wouldn't be responsible.
• On Wednesday, however, the president continued to defend his meeting with the Russian autocrat, sending out a series of Tweets, including:

• Based on Trump's performance at the summit, and his continued support of Putin, some members of Congress have proposed actions to oppose the president.

Resolutions

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told CNN on Monday that the Senate could pass a resolution affirming its support for the intelligence community.

"I do want to make sure that the intelligence community knows we support them,” Cornyn said. “I think that's an important message."

Hearings

• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen  (D-NH), a member of both the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, called for a “hearing with the U.S. interpreter who was present during President Trump’s meeting with Putin to uncover what they discussed privately.”

Sanctions

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called for lawmakers to “ratchet up sanctions on Russia, not water them down. The sanctions the Senate passed 98-2 have not even been fully implemented and someone has inserted a loophole to water them down in the House Defense legislation.”
• Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania called for additional sanctions on Moscow unless Putin agrees to cooperate in helping to prosecute the 12 Russian army officers indicted last week for allegedly hacking into Democratic political organizations.

Censuring

On Monday, Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) called on Congress to censure Trump for his “egregious comments.”

As USA Today explained, “A censure would put Congress on the record essentially scolding Trump but not removing him from office.”

What do you think?

Do you want to see Congress censure Trump? Hold hearings on the private meeting? Pass sanctions against Russia? Or do you agree with the president that "many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki"? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Yuri Kadobnovs/AFP via Getty Images)