Senators demand Trump impose sanctions on Russia amid new reports of election interference

On Thursday, The Washington Postreported that Democratic senators are calling on President Donald Trump to impose a new round of sanctions on Russia following reports of a new scheme to undermine the 2020 presidential election.

“Congress has mandated a broad range of sanctions tools, and it is long past time for the administration to send a direct message to President [Vladimir] Putin: the U.S. will respond immediately and forcefully to continuing election interference,” said the letter, written by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

New reporting suggests that Russian trolls have been amplifying false claims that Joe Biden is exhibiting signs of dementia — often taking clips of him suppressing his childhood stutter out of context to create the impression of cognitive decline. The Department of Homeland Security recently suppressed a report warning about the troll operation, leading to fears the administration is uninterested in preventing the spread of foreign disinformation.

The Trump campaign's apparent willingness to accept help from Russian operatives in the 2016 election led to over two years of investigation by the FBI and the Office of Special Counsel, which the president and his allies baselessly decried as a "witch hunt" designed to ruin him politically.