Chris Murphy: We Know the Russians Are ‘Deeply Aligned’ with Trump’s Political Future

EXCERPT:

MURPHY: “Well, I’m glad to hear Mike Pompeo taking seriously what we believe to be the Russians — the Russians’ attempts to try to influence the 2018 election. But when Donald Trump is sending them totally different signals, telling them that there’s really no consequences for your prior manipulation of U.S. elections, that’s no deterrent at all. And what we know is that the Russians are still deeply aligned with Donald Trump’s political future. It was Russian bots that were spinning out the hashtag #SchumerShutdown during the three-day shutdown, trying to help Trump politically win that fight and you would expect that they will be aligned with him again this fall. In part because Trump has taken America off the playing field in places like the Middle East leaving Russia to gain influence, leaving Russia to gain influence all over. So yeah, I’m glad that Pompeo is serious about this. I know others in the Justice Department are serious about it. But when Russia realizes that there’s really no consequence to be paid for what they did in the past, it means that they are likely to go at it again in the future.”