deputy attorney general or acting attorney general. thank you. thank you, senator graham. i want to thank both of you for your decades of dedicated service and intelligence and law enforcement and for your testimony here today. the question before us is one of really grave consequence. as you suggested in your opening statements, really an ex potential threat to our democracy, which is not faced appropriately, will simply encourage increased aggressive actions. the reality is a foreign adversary intentionally influenced our 2016 presidential election and our president may not want to confront this, but it is a reality and one that our u.s. intelligence community agreed about with very high confidence. i greatly appreciate senators graham and whitehouse in conv e convening this hearing and in treating this very real threat to our democracy with the seriousness that it deserves. former director clapper, in your opening statement, you suggested that the russians should be celebrating