McConnell: The Russians Are Not Our Friends |

Politics

McConnell: The Russians Are Not Our Friends

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Juliegrace Brufke

December 12, 2016 1:07 PM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed his colleagues in the upper chamber’s call to launch an investigation into Russia’s alleged hacking in an attempt to sway the election results in favor of President-elect Donald Trump.

McConnell referred to the CIA’s findings as “disturbing,” noting he believes the issue needs to be looked into on a bipartisan basis.

The comments follow a group of bipartisan senators — Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, John McCain of Arizona, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — calling on members to come together and look into cyberattacks launched by foreign governments.

“I agree with Sen. Schumer, Chairmen McCain, Burr and others, this simply cannot be a partisan issue. Let me remind all of you that the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which I and chairman of the Armed Services Committee sit as ex-officio members is more than capable of conducting complete review of this matter,” McConnell said. “And Sen. Schumer will soon join us on the committee and he can review this matter through the regular order. I have every confidence in Chairman Burr that he’ll review the matter in a responsible way.”

While Trump dismissed allegations Russia was attempting to tip the scales in his favor, McConnell said cybersecurity threats are an issue that affect both sides of the aisle and need to be addressed.

“It is defies belief that somehow Republicans in Senate are reluctant to either review Russian tactics or ignore them,” he said.

McConnell said the Obama administration is also looking into the issue, which will provide additional information to the public. Russia has not been an ally to the United States, McConnell notes, stressing the importance of U.S. involvement with NATO.

“Let me speak for myself, the Russians are not our friends. They invaded Crimea, Sen. McCain and I had some Democratic friends met with the delegation from the Baltic countries just this past week. To say that they’re nervous about the Russians is to put it mildly,” McConnell said. “We intend to keep the commitments that are made in the NATO agreement, which I think by any objective is one of the most if not the most successful military alliance in the world history. And I think we ought to approach all of these issues on the assumption that the Russians do not wish us well.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan has not confirmed whether he believes the lower chamber should conduct an investigation into the matter.
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