>> senate democratic leader chuck schumer and florida senator bill nelson spoke about the paul manafort indictment during remarks on the senate floor. this morning the former chairman of the trump campaign for president and a close associate turned themselves in to federal authorities on a dozen charges, including acting as unregistered agents of a foreign power and conspiracy against the united states. the indictments of mr. manafort and mr. gates show that the special counsel's probe is progressing in a very serious way. mueller is moving forward. what we know now is that an alleged unregistered foreign agent who was charged with laundering tens of millions of

dollars from foreign governments on behalf of their agenda was given the chairmanship of a campaign for the presidency of the united states and with it untold influence on a future president and his party. and we know that mr. manafort has had continuing contact with the president since his resignation from the campaign. just as shocking was the admission by a trump campaign advisor that he met with a kremlin contact to discuss so-called dirt on secretary clinton. while we know that mr. popa mr. popadopalous had contact with others, his admission raises many more questions than it answers. mr. mueller and his team should be allowed to seek answers to those questions without

interference from the president or anyone else. the stakes could not be higher. we're talking about the pride and wellspring of our grand democracy -- free and fair elections, which have been going on for more than two centuries, and we're disturbed and adult rated -- adulterated by a hostile foreign power with no good intent for the people of this country. it's critical that we need to get to the bottom of this. that is special counsel mueller's job, and he must be allowed to perform it without interference. the rule of law is paramount in america. we pride ourselves on it. the investigation must be allowed to proceed unimpeded. the president must not under any circumstances in any way interfere with the special

counsel's work. if he does, congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues and truth, the whole truth comesthe presiding officet objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, everybody now in washington knows that the special counsel has announced charges against two of president trump's former campaign aides in connection with the ongoing investigation into whether or not russia interfered with the 2016 election. we know now after painstaking investigations in the intelligence community that in fact russia did interfere in the election and what many of us are

concerned about, since they have continued this pattern in other countries' elections, we are concerned about the fact that they will interfere in the next elections coming up. we've already seen attempts in this special election down in alabama that they have been trying to increase the number of hits going to a facebook or twitter account. so they interfered. well, we learned also this morning that a third former trump campaign aide has pled guilty to lying to the f.b.i. in january when he was asked about his inner actions while he was with the trump campaign. mr. president, these are very

serious charges, and we should be united against any individual who helped further russia's interference in our elections. yet, sadly, the response to these indictments has been seemingly split along partisan lines. that doesn't make sense. defending america isn't a partisan issue. in fact, everyone in the senate, all of our democrats, republicans, our two independents, they have sworn an oath to do exactly that, to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. and so charging these individuals shouldn't be seen as

a victory for one party or another or it shouldn't be seen as a defeat for a party. these individuals are charged with crimes against the u.s., crimes against all of us americans. and the fact is that russian president vladimir putin interfered in our election, and in so doing he has attacked the very foundation of our constitutional democracy. we know that, and we also know that we are not the only country that he has attacked. and according to the u.s. intelligence community, he will continue this type of behavior unless he is stopped. and that's why we have such a heavy responsibility to defend america from these kind of

attacks. and to defend our american constitutional foundations built on a process of free and fair and unfettered elections. it doesn't matter whether you are a democrat or a republican. it should be clear, if you help an enemy of the united states meddle in our democracy, you will be held accountable. too often here in this senate and throughout the country as a whole, we find ourselves suddenly divided on issues because of party politics. but that shouldn't be the case. there should be no disagreement when it comes to protecting america because we should be americans first, not democrats

or republicans first. we should be americans first. we must continue to be patient with the mueller investigation and allow it to follow the facts wherever they may lead because finding out what happened is the only way we're going to be able to prevent this from happening again. and it's the only way that we're going to . madam president, i yield the be able to keep america safe. men president, yield the floor. president, i yield the floor.

live coverage on c-span3 tomorrow. general counsel from twitter, general counsel from facebook, and director of law enforcement and information security from google testify before the jennet -- senate committee. then you can watch all three hearings on c-span3, online that c-span.org, or listen on our free c-span radio app. hoke wrote c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that affect you.

coming up tuesday morning, the early outlook for campaign 2018. and george washington university professor talks about the indictments of three former in johnmpaign officials molars special russia campaign investigation. join the discussion. independent counsel ken starr compared his investigations of the clinton administration to the current investigation of the trump administration during a discussion at the annual texas tribune festival in austin. other panelists included the office director and achief ethics lawyer others. this is just over one hour. [applause]