Senators call for probe into Russian interference in U.S. election

WASHINGTON - Displaying rare bipartisanship, four leading senators, Republican and Democratic, from both political parties called Sunday for an urgent inquiry into allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

Their call emphasized the division between their view and that of President-elect Donald Trump, who called the charges of Russian intervention 'ridiculous” and took new aim at the U.S. intelligence community, which reportedly has concluded that electing Trump was Russia's motivation.

'Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American,” the senators, who include Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is the incoming Senate minority leader, said in a joint statement.

The statement said recent hacking attacks 'have cut to the heart of our free society” and require urgent investigation and action to halt the threat they 'pose to our national security.”

'This cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country,” the senators said in the statement.

Joining in the statement were Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Graham and Reed are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chairs.

McCain went further in an appearance on CBS's 'Face the Nation.”

'It's clear the Russians interfered,” he said. 'Facts are stubborn things. They did hack into this campaign.”

McCain and Graham are Republican hawks on Russia. McCain called Russian President Vladimir Putin 'a thug, a murderer and a killer” on 'Face the Nation.” Their open opposition to Trump over the hacking allegations shows how Russia and Putin are forming a wedge between Trump and leading legislators of his own party.

Graham, in a Twitter post Saturday, said 'Russia is trying to break the backs of democracies - and democratic movements - all over the world.”

Trump, in a Fox News interview, praised his leading candidate to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, chief executive of Exxon Mobil, as a 'world-class player” who 'does massive deals with Russia” for his oil company.

In the interview, recorded Saturday and aired Sunday, Trump belittled reports in the Washington Post and New York Times that the CIA believes Russian agents interfered to assure his victory in the election.

'I think it's ridiculous. I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it,” Trump said. He also said Democrats were behind the reports, and perhaps not the CIA.

Trump has taken startling aim in recent days at the U.S. intelligence community, which comprises 16 agencies in addition to the CIA. Late Friday, the Trump campaign issued a terse statement criticizing the CIA over reports that it believed Russia had meddled in the campaign.

'These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said, referring to false claims that the Iraqi leader such weapons, triggering the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, pushed back against suggestions that Trump disdains the nation's collective intelligence apparatus.

'He absolutely respects the intelligence community,” Conway said on 'Face the Nation.”

The New York Times said intelligence agencies had 'high confidence” that Russian hackers penetrated both the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee's emails but released only Democratic emails to undermine the campaign of Hillary Clinton and damage public views of the credibility of the election itself.

The Washington Post reported that the intelligence apparatus had identified the individuals who hacked the DNC and provided information to WikiLeaks, which published tens of thousands of emails, and that those people were trying to sway the election for Trump.

Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus, who is expected to be Trump's White House chief of staff, disputed reports Republican committee's computers had been hacked.

'The RNC was absolutely not hacked,” Priebus said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.” He said that when news surfaced in June that the Democratic National Committee's computer system had been penetrated, the Republicans called the FBI and 'they came in to review what we were doing.”

He said that review found no evidence that the Republican system had been penetrated. He also said there was no evidence that Republican committee employees' personal email accounts had been hacked. 'So what I'm trying to tell you is the RNC was not hacked,” he said.

Separately, Trump told Fox that he won't be receiving intelligence briefings with the same frequency as past presidents because his aides will be getting them, and the information is often repetitive.

'I don't have to be told —— you know, I'm, like, a smart person. I don't have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years. Could be eight years —— but eight years. I don't need that,” he said.

'But I do say, ‘If something should change, let us know,'” he said.

Trump indicated that the kinds of briefings that President Barack Obama receives almost daily, even when traveling, are unnecessary.

'Now, there will be times where it might change. I mean, there will be some very fluid situations,” Trump said. 'I'll be there not every day, but more than that. But I don't need to be told, Chris, the same thing every day, every morning —— same words. ‘Sir, nothing has changed. Let's go over it again.' I don't need that.”

News reports suggest that Trump is taking the intelligence briefings always offered during a transition period only once a week.

A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Joel D. Melstad, declined to comment.