Congress likely won’t assemble a new bipartisan panel of lawmakers to examine how Russia’s alleged election meddling influenced the results of last month’s U.S. presidential election, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, nonetheless said he’ll continue to urge congressional leadership to convene a select committee devoted to claims concerning Russia’s purported election meddling, even in the face of opposition from his Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.
Mr. McCain, a hardline critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was among a group of four senators who asked Mr. McConnell last month to create a new, select committee tasked with undertaking a “comprehensive investigation of Russian interference” and developing “comprehensive recommendations and, as necessary, new legislation to modernize our nation’s laws, governmental organization, and related practices to meet this challenge.”
Absent the Senate leader’s support, however, Mr. McCain told CNN on Tuesday that the panel likely won’t be convened.
“Without the support of the leadership, then I would imagine it won’t [happen],” Mr. McCain told CNN. “But we’ll move ahead in the Armed Services Committee, and I’m sure other committees will.”
Speaking separately Tuesday to Morning Consult, however, Mr. McCain indicated he wasn’t ready to abandon calls for a select committee just yet.
“Well, we’ll keep trying,” Mr. McCain said of his efforts. “I mean nobody wanted a 9/11 commission, and Joe Lieberman and I pushed it, and that became reality.”
Commenting previously with respect to creating a select panels devoted to Russia’s alleged hacking campaign, Mr. McConnell told reporters on Dec. 12 that the Senate would “follow the regular order,” referring to bipartisan investigations being undertaken by Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees.
“It’s an important subject, and we intend to review it on a bipartisan basis,” Mr. McConnell said at the time. Asked to weigh in Tuesday, a spokesman referred Morning Consult to the Dec. 12 statement.
Mr. McCain has already promised his Armed Services Committee will investigate Russia’s hacking abilities during the 115th Congress, and said he’ll be “working closely” with Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican.
On Oct. 7, the U.S. intelligence community issued a statement saying it was confident Mr. Putin’s regime had directed a hacking campaign against Democratic National Committee computers and other party-affiliated targets with the intent of interfering in the Nov. 8 election ultimately won by President-elect Donald Trump, Republican.
The Obama administration last week released a new report that it said shows the tools and infrastructure used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services “to compromise and exploit networks an endpoints associated with the U.S. election,” and simultaneously expelled 35 Russian diplomats.
Mr. Trump has publicly disputed the U.S. intelligence community’s finding with respect to Russia having interfered in the election, and on Friday said Mr. Putin was “very smart” by not immediately retaliating in kind to last week’s expulsions.
“I assure you that our friends in eastern Europe are very nervous and very concerned about what this administration’s policy will be towards Vladimir Putin,” Mr. McCain told CNN on Tuesday when asked to comment on Mr. Trump’s quote.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.