House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes, R-Calif., charged Monday that it’s “ridiculous” to say Russia wanted Republicans to win the White House this year over Democrats, a charge that Democrats have been making since November.
Nunes asked National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers if Russia had ever favored Republicans in past elections, then asked if the Democratic theory made any sense.
“Don’t you think it’s ridiculous… for anyone to say that the Russians prefer Republicans over Democrats?” he asked.
Both Rogers and FBI Director James Comey stressed that neither of them have made that argument, prompting Nunes to ask again.
“I’m just asking a general question,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be a little preposterous to say that historically, going back to Ronald Reagan and all that we know about maybe who the Russians would prefer, that somehow the Russians prefer Republicans over Democrats?”
Rogers said there’s a section in a classified report that “discusses this” issue, but said it is nothing he can discuss in public.
Nunes’ question is similar to those asked by other Republicans, who have noted that Russia annexed Crimea and successfully thwarted the Obama administration in Syria, and that Russia therefore may have preferred Obama’s former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to succeed Obama.
