Rand Paul Blocks Bernie Sanders Resolution Demanding More Russia Sanctions

Sanders asked for unanimous consent to try to pass his resolution, saying senators "must act" if they are "serious about preserving American democracy."

"The Congress must make it clear that we accept the assessment of our intelligence community with regard to Russian election interfering in our country and in other democracies," Sanders said during a Senate floor speech.

Under Senate rules, any one senator could block his request.

Sanders's resolution would also demand already passed sanctions legislation be fully implemented, move to protect the election system and "not accept" interference in Mueller's investigation, including the firing of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

But Paul objected to the resolution, saying it was a sign of "Trump derangement syndrome" coming to the Senate. Paul has been one of Trump's most vocal defenders in Congress in the wake of the president's sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.

Sen. @RandPaul: "Trump derangement syndrome has officially come to the Senate. The hatred for the President is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance."

Full video here: https://t.co/Jk5rOpnh1i pic.twitter.com/pM4PK9RPvf

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 19, 2018

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Trump Derangement Syndrome has officially come to the Senate. The hatred for the President is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance. Does anybody remember that Ronald Reagan sat down with Gorbachev and lessened the nuclear tensions? We need to still have those open talks.

Nobody is saying or excusing Russia's meddling in our elections. Absolutely, we should protect the integrity of our elections. But simply bringing the hatred of the president to the Senate floor in order to say, 'We're done with diplomacy, we're going to add more sanctions and more sanctions'...

The hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance... This has got to stop. This is crazy hatred of the president. We don’t have to have war, we can still have engagement...

We should stand firm and say, 'Stay the hell out of our elections,' but we should not stick our head in the ground and say we're not going to talk to them.