On the recordFebruary 6, 2018
I have been involved in a number of elections over the years. I love campaigns, and I love campaigning. I have always campaigned in a situation in which you have your opponent, and the people have a chance to make a judgment between you and your opponent as to who can best serve the people. Little did I ever think that I was going to have to fight against the Russians in a campaign. Yet that is what I fully expect, and that is what I expect a number of us who are up in November of this year will be having to do because, in the midst of all of the disinformation that we have seen that the Russians are very good at--all of the fake accounts on Twitter and Facebook, the internet trolls, the botnets--it is critically important that the American people understand this is a fundamental attempt by Russia to influence our very democratic institutions and our critical infrastructure; and our elections, indeed, are a part of that critical infrastructure. Last year, the intelligence community assessed that when Putin sees his attempt to influence the last election as a success, he is going to do it again. That is what the intelligence community's conclusion was. Then, just last week, the Director of the CIA said that he had every expectation that Russia will meddle in the 2018 midterm elections. As the Senator from Maryland just said and as the Senator from Rhode Island has already said, this is not a partisan issue. It could happen to both sides.…
