Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) on Thursday told The Hill that the administration considering allowing Russian investigators to come to the U.S. and question U.S. citizens, including a former ambassador, is “very untimely and very inappropriate.”
Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, was responding to Wednesday comments from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that there had been “some conversation” about allowing Russians to interview U.S. citizens.
Fellow GOP Sens. Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) also pushed back at the notion.
“I would never put our ambassador and others in (that) circumstance; we ought to be defending our ambassadors and their past service … this is not comparable to the 12 (Russians) who were indicted, and there ought not be a fishing expedition by those from Russia,” Moran said.
Tillis stopped short of advising the administration on how to handle the situation with Russian investigators but warned, “Any time you’re dealing with Russia it’s all theater … any time I wonder whether or not President Putin is misleading the American public, in terms of his meddling in elections, I generally believe that when his lips are moving on the subject, I don’t believe he’s honest.”
— Molly K. Hooper
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