Former defense secretary Gates says it's not 'case closed' on Russian interference
Former defense secretary Robert Gates on Sunday pushed back against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s call for the country to move on from Robert S. Mueller III’s report, arguing that Russian interference in U.S. elections remains an urgent issue.
McConnell (R-Ky.) last week declared “case closed” on Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But in a wide-ranging interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Gates said the United States has “not reacted nearly strongly enough” to Russia’s “blatant interference in 2016.”
“The piece of the Mueller report about Russian interference is not ‘case closed,’” said Gates, a Republican who was defense secretary under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “And, frankly, I think elected officials who depend on honest elections to get elected ought to place as a very high priority measures to protect the American electoral system against interference by foreigners.”
In a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, Trump discussed the end of the Mueller investigation but did not raise concerns about the possibility of Russian interference in the 2020 campaign.
Gates said Sunday that was “a mistake.”
“I think he should’ve said, ‘We’ve had this discussion, the evidence is in and don’t ever do this again or there will be consequences for Russia,’ ” he told host Margaret Brennan. “I think he very much should have raised it with him.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-defense-secretary-gates-says-its-not-case-closed-on-russian-interference/ar-AABglLs?li=BBnbfcL
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