Dem senator: Trump still trivializing Russian election interference

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said on Sunday that President Trump is playing down Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

“One thing that the president continues to diminish, which I think is unfortunate, is the fact that the Russian government at the highest level deliberately interfered in our election in 2016,” Reed, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

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The Democratic senator emphasized the importance of the investigation, saying intelligence shows the Russians plan on interfering in the 2018 midterm elections, as well as the 2020 presidential elections.

“According to all of our experts in the intelligence community, they’re coming back with more force in ’18 and ’20. We have to, as a legislative matter, find out what they did, how they did it, how we can prevent it. Do we need statutory improvements? Do we need to empower our agencies to do something else?” Reed said. 

“We have a separate mission, in addition to finding out what went on, is how we fix it,” he said. 

Former FBI Director James Comey said last Thursday that he expects more Russian interference in future U.S. elections.

“I think one of the lessons the Russians may have drawn from this is that this works. And so as I said a month or so ago, I expect to see them back in 2018, and especially in 2020,” Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Reed went on to defend Comey, saying his actions could be seen as a safeguard against future Russian interference. 

“One of the reasons that he was so conscious of conducting this investigation was not to look back and appropriately charge people who might have done something wrong, but that he was looking forward to what could happen and what will likely happen in ’18 and ’20,” he said.