The top senator on a cybersecurity panel warned that Russia is undoubtedly interfering in U.S. elections and public policy, contrary to conflicting messages out of the White House.
“There is no question that our intelligence agencies are right on with respect to Russian involvement in the election process and their continued attempts to influence public policy in the United States, as well as to influence or to meddle in our election process,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, said Thursday.
Russians “want to discredit our process of elections,” he added. “They’d love to be able to destroy our sense of confidence in our ability to govern ourselves. That’s what this is all about.”
Rounds is one of many GOP lawmakers at odds with President Trump after he sparked criticism for questioning the U.S. intelligence community’s finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump later tried to walk back his statement, but that prompted another clarification by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Most Republicans on Capitol Hill say they believe Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’s warning last Friday that U.S. digital infrastructure is under attack and that Russia continues “their efforts to undermine our democracy.”
On Thursday, fellow Armed Services Committee member Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters that he was in Brussels last week talking to world leaders about Russia’s attempts to undermine other western democracies.
“I spoke with country leaders in Europe where [Russians] are very clearly, in plain sight, meddling in elections, meddling in public policy,” Tillis said. “No rational person would expect that they are doing anything less than that in the United States.”
—Molly K. Hooper
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