A Republican senator just completely denied the reality of 2016 election meddling

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 11:38 AM ET, Mon November 25, 2019

(CNN) Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy was asked a simple question by Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday: “Who do you believe was responsible for hacking the [Democratic National Committee] and Clinton campaign computers, their emails. Was it Russia or Ukraine?”

Here’s what Kennedy said in response: “I don’t know. Nor do you. Nor do any of us.”

That is simply not true. False. And what’s worse is Kennedy, of course, knows that. Because he has been residing on planet Earth for the last three years.

And, because of that, Kennedy knows four things:

1) The intelligence community concluded in early 2017 that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton

2) The Senate Intelligence Committee — chaired by Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr — affirmed that finding

3) The Mueller Report, almost two years in the making, reaffirmed Russia’s role and goals

4) Robert Mueller himself, in sworn testimony on Capitol Hill this summer, said this: “The Russian government interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion.”

When confronted by Wallace with just one of those facts — that the intelligence community has made clear it was Russia that hacked the DNC server and Clinton campaign emails and then pushed what they found to the website WikiLeaks — Kennedy responded: “Right. But it could also be Ukraine.”

Continued

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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/25/politics/john-kennedy-russia-ukraine-chris-wallace/index.html