GOP rep: Russia tried, failed to sway the election

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) says Russia tried meddling in the presidential election but did not determine Donald Trump’s victory.

“If Russia was involved in trying to influence American elections, we should know about it,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day” Monday.

“But I think it’s important that we parse that with the point that I don’t think Russia actually had any influence in this election. They might have tried, but they didn’t have any influence.”

Duffy said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton made enough mistakes to cost her the White House without Russian interference.

“I mean, they didn’t set up Hillary Clinton’s email server,” he said of Russia. “They didn’t set up the Clinton Foundation. They didn’t do her messaging. They didn’t encourage her not to come to our great state of Wisconsin.”

“What I think, Chris, is that if Russia were involved, again, we’d want to do the background investigation and fully be aware of what kind of influences they want in our election system because we want to prevent it in the future,” added Duffy, who endorsed Trump.

Reports emerged Friday that a secret CIA assessment had concluded Russia interfered in the presidential election to aid Trump’s campaign.

Intelligence agencies have identified various individuals who helped the Russian government leak hacked documents from various Democratic sources.

Information from targets such as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton’s campaign chairman was then given to WikiLeaks, according to the report.

Trump called the CIA’s findings “ridiculous” in an interview aired Sunday, adding Democrats are using it as “another excuse” for Clinton’s loss.