The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday that he is open to the idea of an independent commission to investigate Russia’s influence in the 2016 elections and the Trump presidential campaign, saying that it is one of the most serious issues of his career.
“If we can get an independent commission, I’m open to it,” Mark Warner of Virginia said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. The makeup and mandate of the commission would need to be settled first, Warner said.
Nevertheless, he said, he has trust in the Senate Intelligence Committee and its chairman, Richard Burr of North Carolina. “We’ve had some bumps, but I’m woking very closely with him now,” Warner said. “I trust him.”
The severity of the case, Warner said, means that it needs to be handled in a bipartisan way. “The Russians massively intervened, and they’re doing the same thing right now in France and Germany,” he explained.
The committee is set to have its first hearings on Russia’s influence on the election this week.
At some point, it will also interview Trump associates, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort, regarding the possibility of any ties to the Russian government. Warner said that those interviews had to wait for the committee to review evidence and build cases.
