Sen. Ron Johnson, as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, participated in the first briefings with officials who claimed that no Russian state actor could hack the nation's voting machines and that the general election would be legitimate, but on Friday he accused the Obama administration of "changing its tune."
"I don't know what to believe," the Wisconsin Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "I asked for a brief, secure briefing from the CIA this morning. I came in yesterday to meet with Gen. John Kelly. They refused a briefing."
Further, on Thursday night, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed that that some hacked Democratic National Committee documents might have come from Russia – but that the ones his website published did not, throwing more doubt into the situation.
"I don't know what is up with that. I certainly take anything from Julian Assange with a grain of salt," Johnson said. "I don't know how you can assume with a high level of confidence what any actors' motives are in this. It shouldn't come as a surprise to us that Russia is hacking and spreading disinformation and propaganda. I don't like it. We need to push back on it but this has been known for quite some time."
President Barack Obama said Thursday there would be serious consequences to Russia over the claims of hacking, but Johnson said he doesn't think Russian President Vladimir Putin is "shaking in his boots."
"We need to take this very seriously," said Johnson. "It is not just about saying there will be serious consequences. There actually have to be some. Let's face it, the next president, President [Donald] Trump, will be dealing with a real mess created by this president's feckless and ineffective, weak foreign policy."
Obama has had a similar strategy in Aleppo, Syria, called "peace through withdrawal."
Trump, though, has promised peace through strength, and Johnson said that is the only thing that works.
"We have to rebuild the economy, rebuild the military," said Johnson. "We need to show Russia, China, and Iran that America is back and we'll be really dealing with them from a position of strength because dealing with them from position of weakness has been a miserable failure."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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