Key Senate intel panel witness: Russia ‘still winning today’

Former FBI agent Clint Watts on Sunday said the U.S. will continue to lose to its adversaries until it is able to put aside the debate over fake news and come together.

During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Watts, who testified last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russian meddling in the election, was asked about how the U.S. should respond to a cyberattack.

“There’s two things we have to do above everything else. We could do the whole government approach, but we have to get one, a baseline for fact and fiction,” he said.

{mosads}”Right now, we have arguments over that amongst our executive branch. The other thing is we cannot counteract measures if we are anti-NATO and anti-EU. That is Russian propaganda as well … that’s what it seems like our administration is pushing right now.”

Watts was further asked about whether this is “nearly impossible to stop in this political climate” if a majority of Americans distrust what they see in the media.

“It’s exactly what the Russians want. They’re still winning today and they were winning before the election,” he said.

“Just as talking about it here today is a victory for them. People are going to argue when I leave this table and you leave today, what’s fake news and what’s true and false, and until we can put that debate aside and come together as Americans, we’re going to continue to lose to other adversaries.”