Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul questions the intelligence community for evidence to back up their conclusion that Russians prefer President Trump as the Republican nominee and Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee for president. McFaul also criticized the Obama administration for the lack of action after receiving intelligence in October 2016 about Russian interference on behalf of Trump.
MICHAEL MCFAUL, FMR. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA: I’m deeply disturbed that the way we’re finding out about these alleged activities is through leaking through the press. Right? This is secret information. These are supposed to be secret briefings. They either should be kept secret or they should be public. What I don’t like is us right now kind of interpreting the drip drip drip of the partial briefing that we have some exposure to through a source, through journalism.
My own view is that the intelligence community should declassify all of this intelligence that they have so that the American people and especially the American voters know what the Russians are doing. So that we’re not trying to guess. But if I have to guess, what I would say is they’re sowing division. It’s not necessarily that they want Senator Sanders to win as the National Security Adviser just said.
On what basis, by the way, does he make that claim? I would like to know what intelligence he’s received that he could assert that Putin wants Senator Sanders to win. I don’t know that to be true. I would like to know the evidence that he has. But I think it’s more general than that. They want polarization. They want division. And supporting Senator Sanders and Donald Trump helps you to sow that division, that polarization in American society.