Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:43 pm
Despite the continued efforts of Donald Trump’s team to cast doubt on Russia’s involvement in the Nov. 8 election, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner is now promising to put forward a bill in the next Congress to create a special committee dealing with cybersecurity issues.
The news comes a day after Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham joined several top Democrats in calling for a special, bipartisan panel to investigate Russian interference.
Gardner’s proposal is the first legislative move toward an investigation into Russia’s involvement in influencing the presidential election in favor of Trump, which likely helped the president-elect win close contests in several decisive states.
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If Gardner’s bill passed, Politico reports, it “would mandate a new select Senate committee on cybersecurity” which would investigate the election-season cyber attack.
According to Politico, the bipartisan calls to establish a special committee are only growing louder:
The biggest advocates for a select committee are executing a full-court pressure campaign. Graham and Schumer, on the heels of their weekend missive, will appear together Tuesday on NBC’s “Today Show†on the latest in their bipartisan push, a Republican aide said.
The bad news is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is opposed to the idea of setting up a new committee to investigate Russian interference in the election. McConnell says that any investigation into the matter should go through the usual channels.
The only problem is that there is nothing normal about what happened.
For the first time in American history, a foreign power has meddled in America’s electoral process, and they did it in a way that actually impacted the outcome of the election.
While it may have benefitted the Republican nominee in this instance, members of both parties should recognize that a successful attempt to undermine our democracy hurts all of us in the long run. More Republican leaders in Congress – and, yes, even the president-elect – should embrace bipartisan calls for an investigation.
Ultimately, this isn’t about one presidential candidate or even one political party. It’s about protecting our democracy.
If we don’t get to the bottom of how our democratic process was hijacked by a foreign government, then it could very likely happen again.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
