The intelligence community needs to make its case to the American people, and President-elect Trump, proving Russia is responsible for high-profile hacks before November’s election, a Florida Republican lawmaker said Wednesday.
Rep. Dennis Ross said on CNN that Trump hasn’t seen the evidence of Russia’s involvement in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails.
“I would love to see our intelligence committee get a handle on this, but we haven’t seen that evidence, the president-elect hasn’t seen that evidence,” Ross said.
While Ross attributed that lack of awareness to the intelligence community, Trump advisers have acknowledged he doesn’t receive the presidential daily intelligence briefing every day. Reports from the intelligence community indicate Trump has been briefed on the subject.
Ross said he doesn’t know what Trump meant when he said he has some information about the hacks that the intelligence community doesn’t, but expected more information on the hacks will come before Jan. 20.
“Next week we should know what sources are out there, what intelligence has given rise to these claims,” he said.
Ross said Trump is helping Americans realize the state of national security is not as strong as the Obama administration would have people believe, especially when it comes to cybersecurity.
While Trump has often obfuscated when asked directly about cybersecurity, including at one point during a presidential debate when he mentioned his 10-year-old son Barron is very good at working with computers, Ross said Trump’s harping on defense is working.
“This president-elect is showing how vulnerable we’ve been to cybersecurity attacks for years and our standing in the international community has fallen,” he said.
