Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellFEC flags McConnell campaign over suspected accounting errors Poll: 59 percent think president elected in November should name next Supreme Court justice Mark Kelly: Arizona Senate race winner should be sworn in 'promptly' MORE (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sought to reassure European allies following President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE’s chummy press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We value the NATO treaty,” McConnell declared at a weekly press conference, seeking to clean some of the fallout after Trump’s contentious meeting with NATO allies in Brussels earlier this month.

“We believe the European Union counties are our friends and the Russians are not,” McConnell told reporters. “We understand the Russian threat.”

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He said Russians have demonstrated their hostility by annexing Crimea, by invading Ukraine and by interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, calling the evidence of that meddling “indisputable.”

McConnell said those views are held widely in the Senate GOP conference, which finished meeting moments before the press conference began.

He said colleagues are mulling several legislative options to push back against Trump’s embrace of Putin.

“Sen. Rubio, for example, has got a bill that targets the 2018 election, the cycle we’re right in now,” McConnell noted, citing a bill sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioOvernight Defense: Pentagon redirects pandemic funding to defense contractors | US planning for full Afghanistan withdrawal by May | Anti-Trump GOP group puts ads in military papers Democrats step up hardball tactics as Supreme Court fight heats up Press: Notorious RBG vs Notorious GOP MORE (R-Fla.) that would impose penalties on Russia if it again interferes with a U.S. election.