Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has bolstered attempts to “delegitimize” President-elect Trump’s victory by backing calls for a congressional probe into Russia’s hacking-related activities during the 2016 presidential election, a Trump transition official said Monday.
“I think what this is is an attempt to delegitimize President-elect Trump’s win,” Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller said of the calls for a congressional investigation into Moscow’s alleged interference in the election when asked about McConnell’s support for it.
“First, after the election, it was the recount nonsense. Then it was a discussion of the popular vote. Now it’s a discussion about a report from anonymous U.S. intelligence officials,” said Miller, who was unaware of the last time Trump and McConnell spoke.
Those in Trump’s circle have blasted lawmakers’ renewed focus on Russia’s alleged interference in last month’s election. “These are the same people who told us Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the president-elect’s transition team said of U.S. intelligence officials in a statement last Friday, hours after the White House announced that President Obama had requested a “full review” of Russia’s cyber activity during the 2008 and 2016 presidential elections to be delivered to him in a report before he leaves office.
In addition to Obama’s request, some Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have said they plan to hold hearings and conduct investigations into the Russia’s cyberattacks into U.S. political institutions like the Democratic National Committee.
“Obviously any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing and I strongly condemn any such efforts,” McConnell told reporters on Monday.
“It’s an important subject and we intend to review it on a bipartisan basis,” he said, adding that “the Russians are not our friends.”
