Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) made it clear on Tuesday that Republicans are not unified in the claim that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election on behalf of Hillary Clinton, reports Axios.
“I saw no evidence from our intelligence community, nor from the representatives today from the Department of State … that suggests that Ukraine interfered in our elections,” Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill. “We have ample evidence that Russia interfered in our elections.”
Romney’s view is supported by Sen. Angust King (I-ME), a member of the Intelligence Committee, who told CNN on Tuesday that after numerous hearings and discussions of the matter, he never heard “a hint, a breath, a suggestion, a word that somehow Ukraine was involved.”
“Some Republicans in Congress — most notably Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) — have renewed claims recently that Ukraine meddled in the election, seeking to justify President Trump’s campaign to pressure Ukraine’s government to announce an investigation,” says Axios.
Trump has said he takes the word of Russia’s Vladimir Putin that Moscow did not meddle in the 2016 election.
But Axios notes that “it’s the overwhelming consensus of the intelligence community that it was Russia, not Ukraine, who systematically interfered in the 2016 election.”
“Intelligence officials recently briefed senators that the alternative narrative about Ukraine is one has been propagated by Russian intelligence services,” Axios says.