Sen. Charles E. Schumer says that if Republicans want to do something about President Trump’s new comments welcoming foreign meddling in the U.S. election, they’ll have a chance Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, said his party will ask for consent to speed to the floor a bill making it a requirement that any presidential candidate who gets election-related information from a foreign power has a duty to report it to the FBI.
That could create an early test for Republicans.
The bill, which has been floating about for weeks, got a new boost after Mr. Trump on Wednesday told ABC News that he would welcome dirt from a foreign government, and his immediate reaction wouldn’t be to rush to U.S. authorities to report it.
Mr. Schumer called that “undemocratic, un-American, disgraceful.”
Mr. Trump told ABC that a foreigner offering information isn’t interference.
“They have information. I think I’d take it,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican and key Trump ally, said that invited more foreign meddling, and he called the president’s sentiment a “mistake.”
But he said Democrats aren’t blameless.
He pointed to the Clinton campaign’s secret payments to a research firm that hired a former British spy, Michael Steele, to compile information on Mr. Trump using what appear to be Russian sources.
“The outrage some of my Democratic colleagues are raising about President Trump’s comments will hopefully be met with equal outrage that their own party hired a foreign national to do opposition research on President Trump’s campaign and that information, unverified, was apparently used by the FBI to obtain a warrant against an American citizen,” Mr. Graham said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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