Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Saturday urged President Trump to “forcefully” respond to the hacking operation that targeted the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.
“This attack on French democracy is a threat to all of us, and our way of life,” Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
“I call on President Trump to respond forcefully to this attack. He must not downplay, ignore, or encourage such an assault,” he added.
{mosads}Just hours before the start of a campaign blackout on Friday, a massive archive of internal documents from Macron’s campaign were leaked online.
The French government has urged media and internet users in the country to avoid covering or republishing the material before Sunday’s election, and has stated that the online information appears to include fake documents.
According to The Associated Press, France’s government cybersecurity agency will also probe the hacking operation in order to learn more details about the attack.
In his statement, Smith warned that if U.S. does not challenge the effort to “undermine representative democracy around the world” it will lose “much of what we value and what we have sacrificed for as a nation.”
Other Democrats have slammed the release of the documents targeting Macron, whom former President Barack Obama endorsed over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen earlier this week.
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, weighed in on reports that hackers had leaked a mixture of fake and real documents, calling it a “nightmare scenario.”