Russia is an "adversary" — and the best way to beat the Kremlin for its hacks during the presidential election is through U.S. energy policy, Rep. Will Hurd told Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"Russia is an adversary," the Texas Republican, who was just appointed to the House Intelligence Committee, told "The Joe Pags Show."
He said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, one of the party operatives breached by Moscow, "spent over $6 million trying to unseat me, but an attack on them is an attack on all of us."
"It was very clear that the connection with Russian intelligence — and they're not just doing it here in the U.S.," he told host Joe Pagliarulo. "They're doing it in Europe.
"This is them showing that they're trying to sow a seed of confusion around the world."
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Hurd, 39, spent nine years as an undercover CIA agent in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He also speaks Urdu, the Pakistan national language.
In 2014, he became the first African American Republican to be elected to Congress — representing a district that stretches 800 miles, from San Antonio to El Paso, along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Hurd told Pags one of the nation's strongest weapons against Russia and President Vladimir Putin is U.S. energy policy. He also supports retired Exxon Mobil Corp. Rex Tillerson for secretary of state.
"Start using our own resources but start selling it to Eastern Europe," Hurd said. "Last year, seven Eastern European countries asked for the Obama administration to increase a liquefied natural gas export to their areas.
"This is a big deal, because they get their energy from Russia and [that] was a big deal. We can do that.
"Not only does that mean we're selling American energy, but that means we're dealing a blow to the Russians."
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