A bipartisan collective of four Senators, including three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee released a statement on Sunday in direct response to reports published over the weekend claiming the CIA believes Russia intended to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The statement was issued by Republican Senators John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and Lindsey Graham, Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. The statement was joined by Democratic Senators Charles E. Schumer, the incoming Senate Minority Leader, and Jack Reed, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.
“For years, foreign adversaries have directed cyberattacks at America’s physical, economic, and military infrastructure, while stealing our intellectual property, the statement reads. “Now our democratic institutions have been targeted. Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American.”
Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks.
This cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country. We are committed to working in this bipartisan manner, and we will seek to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security.
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has not responded directly to the Senators’ statement as of late Sunday morning. But, as our sister website Mediaite noted on Friday, the transition team did respond to the initial reports on Friday about Russian interference by reminding the American people how the CIA botched claims about weapons of mass destruction claims before the Iraq War in 2003.
NEW: Statement from Trump transition team on reports of Russian influence in the U.S. election pic.twitter.com/synyRcHFIq
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 10, 2016
The earlier transition team statement also said,”The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.'”
LawNewz.com will update this article if the Trump transition team issues a response to the Senators’ statement.
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