Martin Heinrich: “I come to the floor today, not as a member of any one committee or political party but as a gravely concerned American.…”

“I come to the floor today, not as a member of any one committee or political party but as a gravely concerned American. On a seemingly daily--or even hourly--basis, there is a new revelation about the Trump campaign's possible ties to or even coordination with Russia's interference in our Presidential election last year. With these constant reports coming out, it can be difficult to see through all the smoke in the air. However, what is clear is that we must get to the bottom of what exactly happened. I know that the White House and some in Congress are furiously working to sweep this under the rug, but only the truth will serve as a public means to move past this crisis for our democracy. That is why I come to the Senate floor today, to address this issue before my colleagues and to help the American people sort through the details of what we know to be the undisputed facts. We know without a doubt, based on the assessment of credible intelligence, that the Russian Government hacked into Presidential campaign infrastructure and sought not only to damage Hillary Clinton but to try to help elect Donald Trump. Russian intelligence operatives hacked into the email servers of both of our two major political parties. They chose to selectively leak information that damaged one Presidential candidate and favored the other. This is not a partisan political assessment.…”