Clinton aide: ‘Soul crushing’ to learn Russia interfered in election

Jennifer Palmieri, Hillary Clinton’s campaign communications director, called the CIA’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election “soul crushing.” 

“It is soul crushing because it’s a little late to be learning this,” Palmieri said Monday night. 

“[The campaign] tried to get more focus on the campaign trail and the press on the fact that this was happening because at that point, we already knew,” she said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” 

{mosads}Emails stolen from campaign chairman John Podesta and leaked by WikiLeaks haunted the Clinton campaign in its latter months. 

The campaign at the time said Russian state actors were behind the leaks in an attempt to interfere in the election but, Palmieri said, it didn’t get enough media attention. 

The Washington Post reported last week that CIA officials have concluded Russian hackers were trying to help Donald Trump win the election by obtaining and releasing via WikiLeaks emails from the Democratic National Committee and others. 

“Words we never thought would come out of our mouths: ‘The Russians are trying to influence our elections,'” Palmieri said Monday. 

“Just as an American in the year 2016, 30 years after the end of the Cold War, it’s something I never imagined we’d have to worry about.” 

Congressional Democrats and some Republicans are now calling for an investigation into Russia’s interference.

Trump and his allies, though, have dismissed the allegations, and efforts to investigate them, as coming from “people who are bitter their candidate lost.” 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday said that the CIA’s findings should be investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee but rejected calls for a special select committee to review the matter.