Richard Lugar Quotes

If we discover through a thorough and unbiased investigation that Russia has indeed attacked our electoral process directly with the intent to influencing the process, our response needs to be robust, rapid, and proportional. This will shape our relationship with Russia profoundly.

I think there was certainly contact between the Trump campaign and Russians, which is perfectly normal. All campaigns in the modern age have contact with representatives of foreign governments.

Mr. Obama said that he personally told Mr. Putin to knock it off and vows to retaliate. But the Obama presidency is coming to an end, and his successor still won't accept that Russia is guilty of tampering with U.S. elections.

You had two men who knew the exact same thing, which is Russia did meddle in the elections. I think President Trump wanted to make sure that President Putin was aware that he was acknowledging it, that he knew it. I think President Putin did what we all expected him to do, which was deny it.

I have a resolution that I introduced in February. I think there's enough there that we know about the Kremlin and about Putin to be concerned about whether or not there was collusion.

Malicious attacks on the Soviet Union produce a natural feeling of indignation.

The West will have to choose: either to come to terms with Russians, or to receive a retaliatory blow. This retaliatory blow will not be by means of war. We will resort to the same weapon: nationalism.

We think that something has to be done against the United States…. When you do something to the United States they are going to retaliate. But the United States is not as powerful as it's made out to be.

I have always favored withdrawing recognition from Russia.

We must hit them hard for interfering with our election, If we do not hit the Russians hard, we will be empowering them .... 2017 is going to be a year of kicking Russia in the ass in Congress.

What is the point in punishing a country?

Enforcement is a very important part of the administration strategy. We think that even our friendly nations should live by the rules, and if they don't, we will intend to enforce things against them.

President-elect Trump says he's not even sure the Russians did the hacking.

Politicians often call for sanctions as a way of sounding tough when they don't want to take riskier measures.

Any country needs to know that there are consequences when they get involved in our elections. And I think that's why it's good that the investigations are going on and we're analyzing and we're looking into all of that, and I think we need to manage it accordingly.

While the specifics of Russia's interference in the 2016 American election remain unclear, no one doubts that Moscow has built a robust technological arsenal for waging cyberattacks.

It is time to investigate Russian interference in our democracy and to address it in a manner that will help restore Americans' trust in their government.

I'd advise my American friends not to meddle in the internal affairs of China.

The truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign.

In response to Russia's election hacking, the U.S. expelled not just one, but 35 spies posing as diplomats - the strongest response ever to a cyberattack against the U.S.

Russia may very well be front and center again in 2020 as they were in 2016 regarding interference in America's presidential election. But the Trump administration is seeking to use its power of diplomacy to bring other countries into the act as well.

We will not stand idly by while any entity - be it a foreign power or corporation - seeks to criminally or unfairly undermine our country's place in the world.

In my experience, bad actors respond to threats of military action or sanctions.

[Donald Trump] said, "Maybe the Russians could find those [Hillary Clinton's] emails - and if the Russians find 'em, please give them to the media." Well, I don't know how you get there from here, but the media then reported that Trump was encouraging the Russians to hack the Hillary campaign and produce the evidence to the media.

The Russians have to be celebrating with a minimal expenditure of resources and what they have accomplished. Of course, what's unfolded now, here, the leader of the lead of the investigation about potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign has been removed. So the Russians have to consider this as another victory on the scoreboard for them.