On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated, “all of this discord that we see going on between congressmen not attending, people basically saying he’s [President-Elect Donald Trump] not legitimate, basically then the Russians have accomplished what they tried to accomplish. I just think it’s wrong and it’s hurtful for the United States of America.”
Manchin reacted to Trump’s criticism of CIA Director John Brennan by saying, “Well, it really doesn’t help us at all. What we’ve got to do is, we’ve got a committee that’s committed and is professional, that’s going to be going into everything, as far as the Russian hacking, and this is serious and we take it very serious. And we’re going to share with the people in open meetings as much as humanly possible, up to the classified level. I think we can get there quickly and give confidence. I’ve got confidence in the intel. community. Does there need to be changes? Were some mistakes made? I’m sure that you can find mistakes any time humans are involved, but these are dedicated professionals, and it’s the security of our nation at risk right now. That’s what we’re concerned about.”
He added, “John, when they keep talking about non-legitimacy, that bothers me from this standpoint here: First of all, there is no indication whatsoever that any votes were tampered with, any voting machines were tampered with whatsoever, anywhere in the United States. In West Virginia, Donald Trump won by about 43%, and I can assure you, there was no tampering to get that type of a margin of victory. But that’s not the case. So, if they believe that there was collusion between president-elect Donald Trump or his staff, we’ll find that out, but there’s no indication of that whatsoever.”
Manchin continued, “The intent of the Russians has always been, under the Soviet control back in the ’70s, they were always trying to be involved and influence our elections. we’ve never seen it at this degree, from everything that we say that we’ve been hearing and seeing shows that they’ve really gone more aggressively this time than ever before. They weren’t successful, but basically their intent. So all of this discord that we see going on between congressmen not attending, people basically saying he’s not legitimate, basically then the Russians have accomplished what they tried to accomplish. I just think it’s wrong and it’s hurtful for the United States of America.”
Manchin further stated that Trump’s response to Representative John Lewis (D-GA) stating that Trump isn’t legitimate isn’t good for the country, and that there’s a time for partisanship and a time for unity, and now is a time for unity, “and the president has to lead us into that.”
He also reacted to Trump saying that he’s going to start by trusting Vladimir Putin, by saying he disagrees with trusting Putin, who is “not a friend of the United States.”
(h/t GOP War Room)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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