Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said he’s worried that the legitimacy of U.S. government institutions is in doubt due to information he’s receiving in classified briefings.
“We members of Congress have a lot of information that the public does not have,” he said, speaking on CNN. “Over the last week or two, the classified briefings I have been to, if the public knew what the members of Congress knew …”
A spokesperson for the Maryland lawmaker said he’s specifically worried about the extent of Russian hacking influencing the election and the role FBI Director James Comey played in revealing information about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Cummings is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and expressed his worries that Republican control of that committee and others will result in information being suppressed from the public.
Cummings said he will attend Trump’s inauguration on Friday but can understand why almost 60 Democratic lawmakers are planning to skip it.
He said more needs to be done to investigate Trump’s connections to Russia, as alleged in an unverified report released last week, and the Kremlin’s involvement in hacking during the presidential election. He also wants Comey to face more questions about his handling of the investigation into Clinton’s email server.
He said Comey’s actions and the intelligence community’s spat with Trump over Russian hacking is leading to a crisis.
“I’m concerned we are moving slowly but surely toward a crisis of legitimacy with regard to our core institutions,” he said.
Cummings called for a 9/11 Commission-style group to investigate the election to see exactly what role foreign influence played. He said there is still more to uncover.
“Information will come out later at some point where I think the public will fully understand,” he said.
