Senator Jack Reed called for the "creation of a Special Select Committee in the Senate" to investigate those foreign agencies that tried to manipulate our electoral process during today's Senate Armed Services Committee. "Special Select" means the committee will have subpoena powers over individuals and records related to the investigation.
Sen. Reed said, "Russia's efforts to undermine democracy at home and abroad and destabilize the countries on its border cannot be ignored or traded away in exchange for the appearance of comity."
He continued, "Furthermore, what Russia did to the United States in 2016, it has already done and continues to do in Europe."
Sen. Reed took a shot at those who are poo-pooing the U.S. Intelligence agencies claims that Russia interfered with our election and said, "Despite the indifference of some to this matter, our nation needs to know in detail what the intelligence community concluded was an assault by senior officials of a foreign government on our electoral process."
He continued, "Our electoral process is the bedrock of our system of government. It is a challenge to the nation's security which must be met with bipartisan and universal condemnation, consequences and correction. I believe the most appropriate means to conduct the inquiry is the creation of a special select committee in the Senate. This issue and the solutions of the problems exposed spill across the jurisdictional divides of the standing committees on armed services, intelligence, foreign relations, homeland security and judiciary."
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has already rejected a bipartisan plea for a special committee when he said that cyber security “is a serious issue, but it doesn’t require a select committee."
The pressure is mounting on Sen. McConnell to do so since (R) Sen. Cory Gardner says he will "introduce a bill that, if passed, would mandate a new select Senate committee on cybersecurity."
I imagine Sen. McConnell and Trump's team are nervous about what could be discovered if a special select committee with subpoena powers is formed. But this is about the sanctity of our elections, and should not be pigeonholed to protect the President-elect.
He doesn't want members of the Trump transition team, not to mention former campaign staffers like Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski, both of whom were too "controversial" for White House jobs, to be subpoenaed about Russia. I guess "Russia-gate Summer" is something he wants to avoid.
Too late, Mitch.
Besides, Trump has claimed over and over again that Russia is innocent of all hacking charges and his campaign was not in contact with Moscow What's he got to worry about?
