Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) suggested on Wednesday that remarks from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sounded like an "invitation" for Russia to disrupt the 2018 midterm elections.
MSNBC host Katy Tur opened up the segment by playing a clip of Tillerson's Fox News interview on Tuesday.
"I don't know that I would say we are better prepared because the Russians will adapt as well. The point is, if it's their intention to interfere, they're going to find ways to do that. And we can take steps we can take, but this is something that once they decide they're going to do it, it is very difficult to preempt it," Tillerson said.
Tur said Tillerson and CIA director Mike Pompeo didn't seem very confident in preventing Russia from meddling in the 2018 midterms, and asked Murphy what his take was on preventing future meddling.
"That is an extraordinary level of defeatism coming from the secretary of state when it comes to an attempt by a foreign power to manipulate U.S. elections," Murphy said. "It sounds like an invitation to the Russians to do it again."
Murphy acknowledged Tillerson was correct to say the Russians are great at adapting when it comes to influencing elections. He went on, however, to attack the Trump administration for not taking any "demonstrable" steps to prevent the Russians from getting into voting rolls and other data.
"Of course, by refusing to implement the sanctions that Congress passed punishing Russia for interference in the 2016 election, Russia now knows they will pay no cost," Murphy said. "One of the ways that you convince a foreign power like Russia not to manipulate elections again is to make it clear to them that they will pay a cost, that there are consequences."
The Trump administration decided in late January not to impose new sanctions on Russia, but its Treasury Department immediately went on to anger Moscow when it released a so-called "Kremlin report"–a list of Russian senior foreign political figures and oligarchs, the New York Times reported.
The State Department angered members of Congress by announcing on Monday that it did not plan to impose new sanctions called for in a measure that President Trump reluctantly signed into law last year. And the Treasury Department angered Moscow late Monday night — Tuesday morning in Russia —with a new name-and-shame list identifying 210 senior Russian political and business figures.
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"This is definitely an unfriendly act," President Vladimir V. Putin said when asked about the Treasury Department list during a campaign event in advance of Russia’s own presidential election in March. "It is complicating Russian-American relations, where the situation is already hard, and is definitely harming international relations in general."
Mr. Putin said Moscow had pondered virtually breaking ties with Washington over what is known in Russia as the "Kremlin report," but decided against it. "We were prepared to undertake retaliatory steps, and quite serious ones too, which would cut our relations to zero," he said. "But we will refrain from such steps for the time being."
Murphy's focus on criticizing the Trump administration's response to meddling during the 2016 presidential election contrasts with what Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) said last July. He told CNN that the Obama administration "choked" in its handling of Russian meddling.