Top GOP leaders back congressional probes of Russia hacking
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky spoke during a news conference on Capitol Hill today.
WASHINGTON >> Congress’ top Republicans today endorsed investigations into the CIA’s belief that Russia meddled in last month’s election to help Donald Trump win, suggesting potential battles ahead with the incoming commander in chief over Moscow and U.S. intelligence.
“The Russians are not our friends,” declared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as GOP leaders steered toward a path contrasting starkly with the president-elect’s belittling dismissal of the spy agency’s assessment and his past praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Senate’s intelligence panel, led by Richard Burr, R-N.C., will conduct a bipartisan inquiry, according to McConnell, who also expressed support for a related probe by the Armed Services Committee, chaired by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Though declining to say whether he believes Russia tried tilting the election toward Trump, McConnell said, “I hope that those who are going to be in positions of responsibility in the new administration share my view” about Moscow.
Shortly afterward, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., released a statement backing an investigation the House Intelligence Committee has already started on cyber threats posed by foreign countries and extremist groups. He called any Russian intervention “especially problematic because under President Putin, Russia has been an aggressor that consistently undermines American interests.”
Underscoring the possible collisions ahead between Trump and the men leading his party in Congress, McConnell and Ryan struck tones markedly more confrontational toward Russia than he has.
Trump on Sunday called the CIA’s contention “ridiculous” and blamed the disclosures concerning its assessment on Democrats who he said were embarrassed over losing last month’s election.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., released a letter Monday to National Intelligence Director James Clapper complaining that recent reports of the CIA’s conclusion clashed with Clapper’s prior statement that he lacked “good insight” about the connection between Russian hacking of Democratic campaign documents and their release by WikiLeaks. Nunes requested a briefing on the subject for this week.
The GOP leaders expressed their views after a weekend in which Trump also said he would not need daily intelligence briefings, a staple of presidents’ days for decades and a flouting of a convention common for presidential transitions.
Meanwhile, Trump continued his cavalcade of meetings in his Trump Tower offices in New York on Monday with potential appointees for his new administration and other leading GOP, congressional and corporate figures. Among them was Carly Fiorina, who unsuccessfully vied with Trump this year for their party’s nomination.
Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, was there to discuss national security issues and is seen by some Trump advisers as a candidate to be director of national intelligence, overseeing the government’s 17 intelligence agencies. She chaired an external CIA advisory board under President George W. Bush but has not worked for the federal government.
Fiorina said her conversation with Trump included “hacking, whether it’s Chinese hacking or purported Russian hacking.”
Others meeting with Trump included moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, No. 3 House GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another GOP presidential contender whom Trump defeated.
The campaign chairman for defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton urged the Obama administration Monday to reveal what it knows about any Russian efforts to help Trump win. John Podesta, whose emails were stolen and posted online, said the administration “owes it to the American people” to release details of the intrusions, which included the hacking of Democratic Party files.
Podesta said the Clinton campaigns also supports a call by 10 of the 538 members of the Electoral College for Clapper to provide information that intelligence agencies have gathered on the subject.
All 10 are unlikely to vote for Trump when the Electoral College meets next Monday. Nine are Democrats, and Texas Republican Chris Suprun has said he won’t vote for Trump.
Other Democrats calling for congressional investigations of Russia’s role in the elections include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
“There must be no equivocation or ignoring the seriousness of the intelligence community’s conclusion about Russia’s actions,” she said.
McConnell said he has “the highest confidence” in U.S. intelligence agencies and said it “defies belief” that Senate Republicans would be reluctant to scrutinize Russian tactics. He recounted Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, said Baltic nation leaders are nervous about Moscow and pointedly praised NATO, the alliance that Trump criticized repeatedly during his campaign.
“I think we ought to approach all of these issues on the assumption that the Russians do not wish us well,” McConnell said.
In a nod to the Trump assertion about Democrats’ motives, Ryan said the congressional inquiries “should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election.”
As expected, Trump’s transition team formally announced he would name Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn, 56, to head the White House National Economic Council. The council provides policy advice to the president.
Trump’s team also said he’d picked Gen. John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security. Kelly is a former commander of U.S. Southern Command.
30 responses to “Top GOP leaders back congressional probes of Russia hacking”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
So the repubs want a democrat president? From the start the party never backed Trump. Sad party!
They don’t want a president who has financial ties with Russia. Why do you think he refused to release his tax returns. The Chump is so unconventional that the Democrats only need to watch as he gets henpecked by his own party.
Get over it. Your team lost. It’s the 4th quarter. Trump has the ball first and ten, no time on the clock. Game over.
^5
He fumbles!
Lol, he’s still in the locker room. The game hasn’t started and his team mates are telling him to stfu. He’s posing for reporters. And his helmet is too small for his fat head.
You aware of the money connection between Russia+Uranium+State Dept+Clinton Foundation?
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html#modal-lightbox
You listen too much to FAKE NEWS MSM.
Get informed & just in case you didn’t know you LOST in a SHOCKING LANDSLIDE.
We WON.
January 20, 2017 #MAGA
Beware NYT was said to be Fake News by someone…just can’t put my finger on it…#MAGA
@ Justus
Why would the NYT bite the hand of their collusionary partner?
#MAGA
@ Jusris
Of the 54 Presidential elections since passage of the 12th Amendment, Trump’s Electoral College margin of victory ranks 44th. Trump lost the popular vote by 2%. There was NO LANDSLIDE.
Yet he’s EVERYONES President bs.. Get over it
@ meat
KaBoom!
@ bsdetection
From what you folks were predicting to what happened..it was a SHOCKING LANDSLIDE.
January 20, 2017 P.E. Trump V.P.E. Pence #MAGA
keonigohan, appreciate the softening of your position on your wildly inflated description of the election results as a “landslide” by your admission that it wasn’t a landslide but instead it was a surprise to some Democrats. Even Corey Lewandowsky said that Comey flipped the election with his last minute and phony announcement that the FBI had discovered 35,000 new emails. It is entirely possible that the polls were right before Comey put his thumb on the scale.
I remember back in the day we would call this a circle jerk.
The CIA’s belief that Russia meddled in last month’s election is not shared by the FBI which should call into question the CIA’s assessment. Never trust the GOP elite either.
LOL, The FBI is in Trump’s corner.
If Russia hacked the DNC to interfere in our election, then the failure is on Obama and the US intelligence community for not preventing such an attack. Russia will do whatever it takes to benefit them, and either Obama/intelligence community 1) did not foresee an attack, or 2) predicted an attack but was too incompetent to stop it. Also, it does not excuse the content of the DNC emails which showed them conspiring against Bernie to anoint Hillary.
I think this inquiry will wake people up on cyber attacks by the Russians and Chinese. There are some questions concerning the Russians support of Trump, though, that need to be answered. One, is why the hackers (they say are Russian) or Assange did not release the Republican emails that were hacked from people involved in Trump’s campaign? Why the deep connections to Russia of Trump and Trump cabinet– can it really just be a coincidence that Trump’s campaign manager, political advisor, national security advisor, and secretary of state are close to Russian leaders and investments in Russia.
IRT Tempmanoa: ALL of Clintons released emails didn’t have substance, but they were released with the substance emails. RNC say their emails weren’t released because they didn’t have substance…So where are the RNC non-substance emails? Clintons non-substance emails were released why not RNC? Why would hackers only issue one sides non-substance emails and not the other? But at the same time, why didn’t hackers release RNC emails that would show and prove that they had nothing to hide and we’re on the up and up? #MAGA
@ etalavera
Spot on!
Wikileaks EXPOSED & CONFIRMED how deceitful the DNC/WH/DEMS really are. Dems are in total FREEFALL & in complete DISARRAY. Pelosi re-elected..racist Muslim Keith Ellison Dem leader…one can only say WOW!
Julian Assange was asked what about the GOP side…”there was none”…..
January 20, 2017 can’t come soon enough #MAGA
IRT Etalavera, no one except the one who hacked the DNC knows. Let the Congressional hearings begin to attempt to find out who “Hacked” the DNC and Podesta’s emails. Could it not be one of their own employee or supporter? Let’s wait and see. Let’s stop spreading “Fake News”.
No one on the Hill, including Obama’s Administration seemed to care that China hacked into the federal governments employee personal records including federal agents. BTW, the Republican party has lost more times to Trump than the Democrats.
Mitch McConnell is just yelping for the chorus. His wife, Elaine Chao, has been nominated by DJT to serve in his cabinet as his Transportation Secretary.
All this cry baby stuff is intended to marginalize The incoming Trump administration. What fluff. What sore losers. Both these parties chastized Trump if he didnt accept election results. Drain da swamp!
Trump outsmarted everybody and got himself elected. Now everyone’s looking for a way to undo what he accomplished. Good luck, he’s smarter than any one of those bozo’s in DC.
“Other Democrats calling for congressional investigations of Russia’s role in the elections include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.”
If it is true that the Russians made this a more honest election, by uncovering corruption on the part of the DNC and parts of the press, perhaps Pelosi should be suggesting they be awarded the Meddle of Freedom.
The cornerstone of a democracy is an informed voter.
Well said.
yes, foreign hack attempts should be investigated. no, the u.s. should not be wasting time indulging the democrats’ fantasy of a wide spread russian conspiracy against them. nothing of importance was contained in the democrat email as far as state secrets.
the u.s. should be investigating clinton’s private email server that was hacked and the classified information she recklessly and negligently allowed to be stolen.
the u.s. should investigate the hack of the office of personnel management where more than 21 million social security numbers were compromised.
yes, there are government sponsored hackers attacking the u.s. computer systems on a daily basis. these hacks should be the focus of u.s. investigations into foreign government sponsored hacks, hacks that compromise u.s. security.
Putin’s military commits war crimes in Syria, bombing hospitals and slaughtering civilians. Trump’s Administration is loaded with Putin’s pals and apologists. Make Russia Great Again!
This was and is an attempt to undermine our democracy and credibility of our political process, and not a partisan issue. Any attempt to politicize this should be denounced.
One of the areas of emphasis during the investigation should be why the Russians were able to successfully carry this out, which will likely mean a no nonsense review of current security policies and practices, especially as it applies to computers, laptops, cell phones, and pretty much anything else that can be hacked.
Now that might seem obvious, but security practices, especially for anyone who travels abroad, cannot be understated. And let’s be honest, there should never be any government business conducted on any media or communication that is not secure.
In that regard, a high degree of transparency is achieved since there should be no communication that is not subsequently reviewable since it will be archived for posterity. The practice of ensuring all communications are conducted on secure lines and secured transmissions should receive no push back from Trump’s administration, in light of their position on the “30,000 deleted emails”.
The investigation of this issue should be conducted with the seriousness that it deserves, and anything less would signal politicization of an issue that would be inexcusable.