‘Nothing wrong’ with taking Russian information
Rudy Giuliani, on CNN: “You think this is the first time the Russians have interfered in an American election? ... Any candidate in the whole world in America would take information, negative. ... Who says it’s even illegal? ... Why did The Washington Post print the information that came from a foreign source, when they knew it was hacked? Aren’t they just as wrong for doing that as the campaign wanting to use it? ... There’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.”
Steven Strauss, Twitter: “Hey WikiLeaks and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, this would be a great time to release President Donald Trump’s tax returns, etc. His lawyers said it is OK.”
Sharyl Attkisson, The Hill: “No vote tallies were changed, according to Obama administration intel analyses, but the interference was serious enough that many insist drastic steps must be taken to avoid a repeat in 2020. ... Why will Russia election interference in 2016 prove to be more enduring than other scandals? A great deal of money and effort has been spent to dismiss other scandals along partisan lines. In this case, people in both political parties agree the interference happened — and that it happened on President Barack Obama’s watch. His intelligence officials appear to have been either distracted, conflicted or asleep at the switch.”
OUR VIEW: Mueller report indicts Russia. Will Trump protect the 2020 election?
Evan McMullin, NBC News: “As a former CIA officer, I couldn’t help but see the events ... the way that President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, would have viewed them as they happened. ... The Trump campaign was flashing a clear, consistent green light; Moscow could escalate its attack without fear of significant consequences as long as it succeeded in electing Trump.”
The Washington Post, editorial: "There is no reason to expect the Russians would stop at what they did before; Moscow can be expected to exploit other vulnerabilities its hackers identified. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report found that they infiltrated a company that made commonly used voter roll software, and seem to have penetrated Florida election administration networks. Just one election administration hack in a close swing state could throw the country into chaos. Counties and states must continue tightening up their systems, which means buying new voting equipment that leaves paper trails, shoring up security around electronic voter rolls, insisting on statistically valid post-election audits of paper records and checking on contractors’ security measures. That will all take money — which Congress should give them."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Nothing wrong’ with taking Russian information
