Sen. John McCain accused President Donald Trump of “doing Putin’s job for him” Friday morning after Trump accused leadership of the Justice Department and FBI of anti-Republican bias.
After Trump tweeted that investigators looking into Russian involvement in the 2016 election have “politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans,” McCain released a statement arguing that Trump is dividing Americans from one another, which is what Russia wants.
The statement does not reference the GOP memo criticizing the FBI investigation of Carter Page, but it came just as House Republicans released the memo with White House permission.
Read the Arizona Republican’s response in full:
In 2016, the Russian government engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy. Russia employed the same tactics it has used to influence elections around the world, from France and Germany to Ukraine, Montenegro, and beyond. Putin’s regime launched cyberattacks and spread disinformation with the goal of sowing chaos and weakening faith in our institutions. And while we have no evidence that these efforts affected the outcome of our election, I fear they succeeded in fueling political discord and dividing us from one another.
The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s. The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.
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