Americas elections. I will now recognize myself when Opening Statement. Yesterday the director of National Intelligence testified that, quote, the greatest challenge we have as a nation is making sure to maintain the integrity of our election system come close quote. Excuse me. I agree. Our democracy was founded on a government elected by the people, for the people and free and fair elections. They are elections very core of our democracy under a aa tactic special counsel most report in no Uncertain Terms detailed how reform government attack on her 2016 elections. The russian objectives were clear, deep in distress and discord in a society come secure the election of one candidate of president over the other, and in so doing undermined confidence in the integrity of our elections and damaged our nations standing in the world. There is no evidence russian affected the actual vote count of our elections but russia did successfully steal thousands of documents from american citizens that
The House Committee will come to order without objection. To chair is authorized declare recesses at any time. Welcome everyone to this hearing on securing americas election, oversight of government agency. I will recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Last month, this Committee Held part one of a series of hearings on securing americas elections. In that hearing, three witnesses who had jointly been chosen testified that our nations elections are under attack. The former director of the National Security council under both president clinton and george w. Bush warned that we must take hold and expeditious steps to address cyber threats. We must treat Election Security theecretary of state from commonwealth of pennsylvania elaborated. Election security is a race without a finish line line and our adversaries are not going down. This testimony has been confirmed by the leaders of our Intelligence Community. Foreign actors will view the 2020 election as an opportunity to review their
Report. The russian connection inside the attack on democracy. It was an unprecedented attack on the very heart of american democracy. Russia is directly behind a series of Cyber Attacks. T the upcoming president ial election. That in one remarkable year catapulted russia, the old cold war adversary, once again to the center of american politics and the american psyche on an almost daily basis. I think every american should be concerned about what the russians did. This is a centipede, a shoe will drop every few days. The presidency. I owe nothing in russia. I have no loans in russia. I dont have any deals in russia. And undermining and even ending the careers of top president ial advisers. The president was very concerned that general flynn had misled the Vice President and others. The president s First National security adviser Michael Flynn fired for lying about conversations with russia. To state the obvious, you dont want your National Security adviser compromised with the russian
And counting to do it. According to sources the president will use individual family stories to make a claim for a crisis along the 2,000 mile border with mexico. The word crisis is what this is all about for team trump. He has to prove that there is one. Our nation is also in the midst of a crisis on our southern border, crisis at our southern border. Crisis at our southern border. Crisis at our southern border. Crisis at our southern border. Undeniable crisis at our southern border. Crisis at our southern border. We have a national crisis. We also have a humanitarian crisis at our border. Humanitarian crisis at the border. Humanitarian crisis at the border. We have a crisis at the border. Its a national emergency. If you say it enough will it be so . In a conversation with reporters Vice President mike pence and several other members of the administration used the word crisis 37 times. But as of right now, the only real crisis that the administration is facing is a credibility crisis
Meanwhile congressional leaders have a simple message. Get this done and have the president stay out of it. I dont like shutdowns, i dont think they work for anybody. I hope theyll be avoided. I would be open to anything that we can agree on on a bipartisan bases thatll make them pretty hard to encourage. When the president stays out of the negotiations we almost, always succeed. When he mixes in, it is a formula for failure. I am asking President Trump let Congress Deal with it on its own. The president does not want to compromise and congressional leaders dont want him in the room. Our big question is did the president learn anything from the longest Government Shutdown in history . Joining me now our kelly odonell and politics reporter sam stein whos also an msnbcs contributor. Kelly, it is an obvious question having covering both sides of pennsylvania avenue, is the president getting his own way here . The president is trying to keep stoking sort of his own base at a time when the