Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen agreed on Wednesday that it would help for President Trump to publicly acknowledge the extent of Russia’s effort to interfere in the 2016 election, and argued he had done so.
“Would it help if the president were to simply acknowledge that this happened in 2016?” asked Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
“Yes, sir,” Nielsen replied.
“He has said that it’s happened, but the line that he’s drawing is that no votes were changed. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a threat, it doesn’t mean we need to do more to prepare,” she added.
Former DHS chief Jeh Johnson, who was also testifying, agreed it’s important for Trump to be heard.
Johnson said it is “very” important that President Trump articulate that meddling happened so that it is taken more seriously.
“The president of the United States is the most visible American, maybe the most visible person on the planet. The things that he says and does are watched very, very closely, so I would agree with that,” added Johnson, who served from 2013-2017.
Trump has previously stated he believes Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Democrats have often complained he has not done so forcefully enough.
Earlier in the hearing, Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered the attack on the U.S. election. Plain and simple.”
“Sanctions imposed on Russia in December 2016 haven’t been enough of deterrent to stop election meddling. It’s up to current administration to take further action,” Johnson explained. “The Russian effort to interfere with our democracy has not ended. The key question is, ‘What are we going to do about it?'”
On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released draft recommendations on how to protect upcoming elections, after its year-long investigation into Russian’s election meddling.
Recommendations included better cooperation between state and federal election officials, and using paper ballots.
Trump has avoided condemning Russia publicly for election meddling, and did not bring it up in a phone conversation with Putin on Tuesday.
When asked about meddling earlier this month, Trump focused on the absence of any proof that votes were changed.
“Well, the Russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever,” he said during a joint news conference with the Swedish prime minister. “But certainly there was meddling and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals. And I think you have to be really watching very closely. You don’t want your system of votes to be compromised in any way. And we won’t allow that to happen.”
During the news conference, he also floated the idea of paper ballots as a back up to computerized systems.
The headline and portions of this story have been updated.
