McConnell reassures Europe on Russia

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sought to reassure European allies following President Trump’s chummy press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We value the NATO treaty,” McConnell declared at a weekly press conference, seeking to clean some of the fallout after Trump’s contentious meeting with NATO allies in Brussels earlier this month.

“We believe the European Union counties are our friends and the Russians are not,” McConnell told reporters. “We understand the Russian threat.”

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He said Russians have demonstrated their hostility by annexing Crimea, by invading Ukraine and by interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, calling the evidence of that meddling “indisputable.”

McConnell said those views are held widely in the Senate GOP conference, which finished meeting moments before the press conference began.

He said colleagues are mulling several legislative options to push back against Trump’s embrace of Putin.

“Sen. Rubio, for example, has got a bill that targets the 2018 election, the cycle we’re right in now,” McConnell noted, citing a bill sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that would impose penalties on Russia if it again interferes with a U.S. election.