Over the weekend, two Republican senators joined calls for Congress to investigate Russian interference in November’s election. The big question is: will any other congressional Republicans join John McCain and Lindsey Graham in saying we need to know what happened, even if it puts an additional cloud over the head of the popular vote-losing Republican president-elect?
McCain and Graham joined with Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed in a statement saying:
“This cannot become a partisan issue. The stakes are too high for our country. We are committed to working in this bipartisan manner, and we will seek to unify our colleagues around the goal of investigating and stopping the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security.”
But with Donald Trump angrily denying that Russia tried to influence the election in his favor and the overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans fully prepared to put party before democracy or country, it’s an open question whether any other Republicans will be willing to even say that it would be good for Congress to investigate just what did—or didn’t—happen. Cowardice and partisan interest point them in the same direction, after all.
Consider this a call for some congressional Republicans to prove me wrong.