Sen. Lindsey Graham has a fiery message for his Republican colleagues celebrating the hacking of Democrats during the presidential election: “You’re not a patriot.”
“To my Republican friends who are gleeful: You’re making a huge mistake,” the South Carolina senator said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“When WikiLeaks released information during the Bush years about the Iraq War that was embarrassing to the administration, that put our troops at risk, most Democrats condemned it. Some celebrated it,” he said.
Graham said most Republicans have condemned Russia’s interference in the election. He added that those who won’t decry the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta do not have their country’s best interests at heart.
“To those who are gleeful about it: You’re a political hack. You’re not a Republican. You’re not a patriot,” he said.
A declassified intelligence report released Friday showed that Russia hacked into the DNC’s email accounts in order to “denigrate” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and help Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Trump has refused to place blame on Russia for the attacks.
In a tweet Friday night, Trump accused the DNC of “gross negligence” for allowing hackers to breach its emails servers.
Graham said it would be “incredibly unnerving” if Trump is still “unsure as to what the Russians did” after his intelligence briefing on the matter.
“All I’m asking him is to acknowledge that Russia interfered, and push back,” he said. “It could be Iran next time. It could be China. It was Democrats today. It could be Republicans in the next election.”
