GOP senator: Mueller’s investigation has ‘gotten confused’

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Sunday said he thinks special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has “gotten confused” amid “constant accusations” being lobbed from both sides.

Lankford, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” that he sees a “growing chaos” surrounding Mueller’s probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and the political polarization resulting from the investigation.

“I think the whole thing has gotten confused, quite frankly,” Lankford said. “Americans turn on the TV every day and, regardless of what channel or where they go to look for news online or in print, it’s constantly something else seems to be the story.”

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Lankford went on to say that he thinks the American public has shifted its attention away from Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and from Moscow’s attempts to intervene in U.S. democratic institutions.

“I think we’ve lost track of the fact that the Russians were trying to interfere in our election and to sow chaos into our democracy and every single day,” he said. “I see a growing chaos in our democracy just in the constant accusations back and forth.”

Lankford added, however, that dialogue with the Kremlin is needed.

“Even with the Russians interfering in our elections, we need to be able to have dialogues with them, we need to have open lines of communication, the same as what President Obama did in the past when he had open meetings with Putin knowing that Putin was trying to interfere in our elections,” he said.

The senator’s comments come after the White House decided to postpone a second meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin until next year.

Earlier this month, Lankford and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) spearheaded a bill aimed at securing U.S. election systems from cyberattacks in response to Russia’s election interference.

The bill, which is gaining traction among senators from both parties, is necessary to secure the validity of future votes and state systems, Lankford said earlier this month. According to the senator, future elections will be vulnerable to hacking or interference if it does not pass.