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DPCC Co-Chair Cicilline: It Is Our Job to Protect the Integrity of Our Democracy

July 14, 2017

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman David Cicilline, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson to discuss Russia's interference in the 2016 Presidential election. Below are excerpts from the interview, click here to watch the video.

"Our relationship with many countries including Russia is complicated. I agree with the person you just had on, Brian I think, but the reality is the point he made is an important one, it is a complicated relationship, but we need to understand that the Russian government interfered in our Presidential election. We should be serious about that, we should conduct the ongoing investigations, we should hold them to account, we should sanction them, we should make it clear don't you ever do this again to America."

"We should be outraged at the time any foreign government interferes in Presidential elections. The reality is it is very important that the Russians understand, by the way we respond to this interference, that America is not going to allow that [and] that we hold our democracy to be sacred. [That we are] not going to allow the government to participate in using hacked, stolen emails [and] putting Russian internet bots onto the internet. This is the conclusion of four intelligence agencies and agreed to by 17. These are intelligence professionals, let's not diminish them. These are men and women who risk their lives to collect intelligence."

"I've had the opportunity obviously to have briefings [and] there have been unclassified documents that have been made available. It is the conclusion of our intelligence agencies, four intelligence agencies, and the agreement of 17, that the Russian government led by Vladimir Putin engaged in a very sophisticated effort to undermine the election of Hillary Clinton. It is our job to protect the integrity of our democracy. We can punish the Russians for what they did and impose sanctions. We ought to fight back against foreign governments interfering with our Presidential election. We can punish the Russian government for having the audacity to interfere with our elections. They did it in France, they tried to do in Germany, they are trying to destabilize the Western democracy around the world."

"I'd like to talk about the fact that we haven't done an infrastructure bill, [and] I'd like to talk about my legislation to make college more affordable. I'm responsible for my own conduct and I continue to say that we should be focused on the issues that matter to Rhode Islanders: that's creating good paying jobs, repairing our infrastructure, making college more affordable, securing the future of Medicare and Social Security. That's what we should be talking about."