First we had the DNC hack by Wikileaks. Now Rep. Mike McCaul dropped the bomb that maybe the RNC was hacked as well while being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN tonight. Blitzer was caught totally off guard by the exchange.
Here is how it went down:
BLITZER: You believe Russia is suspected in the hack of Colin Powell?
MCCAUL: We don't know at this point and time, Wolf. I will tell you, I have been briefed at a very high level and they are very disturbing. A foreign power attempting to mess with our elections and Director Comey basically told us it was to undermine the electoral process, these facts and allegations are very disturbing. The FBI has an ongoing investigation into attribution to see whether, in fact, this comes from. so far I find it to be very disturbing.
BLITZER: These come in the same week more DNC documents, Russia, the key suspect in that cyber attack as well. Is Russia trying to influence this U.S. election in order to get Donald Trump elected?
MCCAUL: Are they try to go influence or undermine the electoral process? They are trying to undermine the electoral process. They have hacked into the DNC, but also into the RNC. They are not discriminating one party against the others. The Russians have hacked into both parties at the national level and that gives us all concern about what their motivations are.
BLITZER: I haven't heard about any Russian hacking of the Republican National Committee. I heard a lot about the Democratic National Committee. You're giving us new information. You're telling us that the Russians have hacked other documents?
MCCAUL: Yes. they have hacked into the Republican National Committee. so this is, again, they are not picking sides here i don't think. They are hacking into both political parties. What they intend to do with that information, i don't know. It is interesting to see Putin talk about how Russia had nothing to do but how it was good to be transparent, for it to come out publicly. I don't trust Mr. Putin. I think Russia is not our friend here either. They are one of the biggest cyber offenders in the world. Next to the United States, they are the greatest challenge we have in cyber.
BLITZER: You are raising some serious questions. The RNC fact, if it occurred, we haven't seen what they hacked. in other words the e-mails have not been released. We did see a lot of e-mails released that resulted from the DNC which led to the resignation of the chair. What you're saying is based ton information you have, they hacked into the RNC but haven't released any of those documents, is that right?
MCCAUL: That's correct. They have infiltrated both parties at the national level. They have hacked into both parties. They have information from both parties. Why they released some documents and not others, we don't know those intentions and that is an ongoing FBI investigation.
Twitter was all over this
And moments later, RNC back tracked. Whoopsie!
So either he knows something from a classified briefing and shared it or he is lying to make it sound like both sides were equally hurt, so the DNC needs to stop complaining. Either way, it looks bad.