Lindsey Graham Breaks with GOP Colleagues on Ukraine Conspiracy: Russia Was Behind 2016 Election Interference

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) departed from conspiratorial talking points pushed by his Republican colleagues’ regarding Ukraine and their supposed interference in the 2016 election, as he insisted on Tuesday that Russia is “1,000 percent” the tampering culprit in that race.

“It was the Russians. I’m 1,000% confident that the hack of the DNC was by Russian operatives, no one else,” Graham said while speaking to reporters in the Capitol Building.

“The Ukraine, they had zero to do with the hacking of the DNC and the stealing of the emails. Whether or not people from the Ukraine met with DNC operatives, I don’t know. All I’ve seen is press reports and nobody’s validated those reports,” he continued. “I have no knowledge that the Ukraine did anything to interfere with our elections other than press reports and to suggest that we know that I think would be a stretch because I don’t think anybody knows that.”

In a follow up comment to CNN regarding his stance on Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 race, Graham stated, “I’ve got no doubt that it was the Russians who stole the DNC emails. It wasn’t Ukraine. Russia was behind the stolen DNC emails and [John] Podesta and all that good stuff.”

While U.S. intelligence services have repeatedly pointed to Russia as the entity behind the DNC hack, some Republicans and Trump media allies have pushed unvetted claims about Ukraine also being involved in an attempt to justify the president’s delay of $400 in military aid to the country.

After Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday and parrot the Ukraine interference conspiracy theory, his colleagues Graham and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) have come out to push back on the claims, as Romney told reporters on Tuesday, “I saw no evidence from our intelligence community nor from the representatives today from the Department of State that there is any evidence of any kind that suggests Ukraine interfered in our elections.”

“I do think that we have to adhere to the facts presented to us by our intelligence community,” the junior Utah senator added.

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