DHAKA: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell broke with President-elect Donald Trump over Russia on Monday, saying he supports a congressional investigation into findings that Russian hackers attempted to influence the election.
McConnell praised the American intelligence community, saying he has “the highest confidence in the intelligence community, and especially the Central Intelligence Agency”, which Trump had recently lambasted over its findings, reports CNN.
McConnell's comments were an implicit rebuke of Trump.
A bipartisan group of senators, John McCain, R-Arizona, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, had on Sunday called for an investigation into the intelligence community's finding that Russia attempted to influence the election.
The President-elect on Sunday (December 11) morning blasted the intelligence community anew, calling its assessment that Russia interfered in the election “ridiculous.”
“I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.
McCain, who has called for an investigation into the hacking, told CNN's Jake Tapper Monday on “The Lead” his own 2008 presidential campaign was hacked by the Russians.
“The key to this is to try to find out what the Russians’ intentions were. Were they intending to change the outcome of our election? If so, it's more serious,” McCain said.
McConnell also expressed skepticism about Russia's role.
“Let me just speak for myself: The Russians are not our friends,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters at a Monday morning news conference.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, took the same position as McConnell.
“Any foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable,” Ryan said in a statement. “And any intervention by Russia is especially problematic because, under President Putin, Russia has been an aggressor that consistently undermines American interests.”
Two days earlier Trump sided with Russia over the CIA and attacked the US intelligence assessment of Russia's role.
BDST: 1305 HRS, DEC 13, 2016
AP
