Chuck Schumer was joined by three fellow Senators including John McCain in a call for a bipartisan investigative panel to look into charges that Russian hacks may have affected the Presidential elections this year. The two were joined by Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) in an open letter which they sent to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/809858856939622400
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In the letter Chuck Schumer and the others stated, “Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American. Cyber security is the ultimate cross-jurisdictional challenge, and we must take a comprehensive approach to meet this challenge effectively.”
“We share your respect for, and deference to, the regular order of the Senate, and we recognize that this is an extraordinary request. However, we believe it is justified by the extraordinary scope and scale of the cyber problem. Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to address this unique challenge.”
https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/809862668731449344
Senator Schumer stressed that he does not want any investigation to become politicized. In a press conference on his own held in New York Sunday he said, “We don’t want this investigation to be political, like the Benghazi investigation. We don’t want it to just be finger pointing at one person or another.”
Majority Leader McConnell has said that he will not create a special committee to investigate the Russian hacks because the Senate Intelligence committee is already looking into it. But Chuck Schumer says that this is not enough explaining, “First, things could be left out. There could be holes that no committee covers. Second, we could get contradictory information. And third, the existing committees are very, very busy.”
Speaking on CNN Sunday John McCain said, “There’s no doubt they were interfering and no doubt that it was a cyber attack. The question is now how much and what damage and what should the United States of America do, and so far we’ve been totally paralyzed.”
McCain and Graham, while Republicans, were strong opponents of Donald Trump’s candidacy for President and were among those Republicans who visibly did not make amends with him during the general election. Senator Chuck Schumer, as a Democrat and Hillary Clinton Supporter, clearly has reason to be bitter about the Russian hacks.
