Top Senate Democrat reveals plan to undermine Trump, claims Republicans will help him do it

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) revealed legislation he'll introduce to undermine President Trump's agenda - and he claims that Republicans will help him do it.

In a Sunday interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," Schumer said that he'll be introducing a bill to make sure Trump cannot unilaterally undo sanctions on Russia, but must seek Congressional approval first.

"Trump suggested in an interview that he may seek a deal with Vladimir Putin where he would lift the sanctions, President Trump, in return for nuclear arms reduction. Is that a deal you could sign on to?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"That would horrible," Schumer responded forcefully, "and in fact, we are so adverse to it that Senator Cardin and I are introducing legislation this week to say that before the president could reduce any sanctions on Russia that it would have to be passed by Congress."

Stephanopoulos interjected, "He does now have that authority on his own, doesn't he?"

He does, and, but we have bipartisan support. Senators McCain and Graham are supporting this legislation. And for us to repeal sanctions given what Russia has done in Ukraine and threatened the Baltics, and now, they've clearly tried to intervene in our election. Whether it had an effect or not, that is something, that is a danger that we have never faced to this extent in American history. We repeal sanctions, it tells Russia go ahead and interfere in our elections and do bad things, it tells China, it tells Iran - that would be terrible. So this legislation I hope will get bipartisan support.

NEW: @SenSchumer plans to introduce bill "with bipartisan support" requiring congressional approval to reduce sanctions on Russia. #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/8hRl7a6rGm

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 22, 2017

Bloomberg detailed the statement from Trump that occasioned the exchange with Stephanopoulos and the legislation from Schumer:

In an interview with two European newspapers earlier this month, Trump floated the idea of lifting sanctions imposed by the U.S. to punish the Kremlin for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and military support for the Syrian government, as part of a nuclear weapons reduction deal.

Russia has been a very contentious issue for the Trump campaign - detractors have pointed to Trump's complimentary statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin as evidence of his authoritarian tendencies. The Trump team has denied the assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia ordered a cyberattack to influence the election in favor of Trump. Senator Schumer, meanwhile, is also pledging to block Trump's Supreme Court picks if they're not "mainstream."