Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says President-elect Donald Trump is at odds with nearly the entire Senate over whether Russia interfered in the election.
“There are 100 United States senators. … I would say that 99 percent of us believe that the Russians did this, and we’re going to do something about it,” Graham told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “The Situation Room” on Tuesday.
{mosads}Graham appeared alongside Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) from Estonia, a Baltic nation he said knows firsthand the danger Russia represents.
“It’s just not in our backyard. [Russia’s] doing it all over the world, not just the United States. They’re interfering in elections in democratic countries’ efforts to self-determination all over the world,” Graham said.
“Along with Sen. McCain, after this trip is over, we’re going to have the hearings. We’re going to put sanctions together that hit [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as an individual and his inner circle for interfering in our election.”
Graham, McCain and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are meeting with officials across a wide array of European nations who have issues with Russia. The trio of senators will journey to Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Ukraine after departing Estonia.
The U.S. intelligence community publicly said during the election that Russia was behind the hacks of Democratic groups. And a CIA assessment reportedly concluded that the Kremlin was interfering specifically to help Trump win.
Both Trump and Moscow have denied Russian involvement in the election.