“It ... takes the power from the president and gives it to the director of national intelligence,” Sen. Rand Paul said on Wednesday. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Election meddling bill would curb president's power, Paul warns

Sen. Rand Paul warned on Wednesday that a bipartisan bill meant to deter foreigners from meddling in future U.S. elections would weaken the president’s abilities to strike back at adversaries.

The bill, known as the DETER Act, is backed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The proposed law would bar foreign governments from buying ads to influence U.S. elections, and would also give the director of national intelligence the power to deploy “national security tools” like sanctions if the Kremlin interferes in another American election.


But speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Paul cautioned that the legislation might hamstring the president’s ability to protect elections.

“It ... takes the power from the president and gives it to the director of national intelligence,” Paul said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in the hot seat during Wednesday’s hearing. He echoed Paul’s sentiment that transferring election security power away from the president is unwise.

“Without having seen the legislation, I do not think that’s a good idea,” Pompeo said.

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Paul also said the legislation does not do enough to differentiate between forms of election meddling or to protect U.S. allies.

The definition of “who might be meddling in an election in our country’s not limited to Russia” in the bill, Paul said. “It could even include allies spending money on social media somehow in our country. It doesn’t seem to differentiate between social media and actually hacking into our electoral system and changing thousands of votes.”

Paul’s stance on the DETER Act comes after the GOP lawmaker praised President Donald Trump’s decision to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month in Finland.

Trump came under fire during that summit for declining to directly address whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Trump later tried to walk back his comments, though he continues to say a federal investigation into whether his campaign coordinated with Russia on its election meddling attempts is a “witch hunt.”