‘I Don’t Get Why You’re Sheltering Russia’: Chris Cuomo Grills Rick Santorum Over Russian Hacking
During a panel discussion this morning on CNN’s New Day, co-host Chris Cuomo pressed recently hired political commentator Rick Santorum to explain why he was seemingly coming to Russia’s defense over hacking while at the same time questioning the consensus of the American intelligence community.
Cuomo started the exchange off by asking Santorum, who endorsed President-elect Donald Trump after ending his own presidential campaign, why he wasn’t upset over “Trump sheltering Russia from responsibility from the hacks.” Santorum objected to the idea that there was even a hack, calling it a phishing expedition, likely due to the way John Podesta’s emails were accessed.
The former Pennsylvania Senator continued, boasting of his work in cyber-security and saying that if “there’s a trail of bread crumbs that says this is the Russians, it’s probably not the Russians.”
This led to a back-and-forth between Cuomo and Santorum, with the CNN anchor asking if Santorum didn’t believe the intelligence community. When Santorum shifted the focus to blaming the DNC for not protecting their servers and networks, Cuomo shot back.
“I’m not saying the DNC did a good job,” the New Day host said. “I’m saying own the responsibility for who is motivating those attacks, I don’t get why you’re sheltering Russia. I don’t get it.”
Santorum explained he wasn’t “sheltering Russia” but stated that he was excited for hearings on the matter because it would basically show Russia is too good to be detected and would point elsewhere.
Political commentator Paul Begala then chimed in after the whole exchange, sarcastically noting that “if my fingerprints are on the murder weapon it’s obvious that I didn’t do it.”
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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