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WASHINGTON—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today discussed Russia’s interference in the election with CNN anchor Carol Costello.  Below are key excerpts from his interview, which can be viewed here in its entirety:

“I’m calling on the intelligence sources to brief the Members of Congress, to give us a thorough briefing as to what they know and why they came to the conclusion they came with. And I’m also calling on the House to hold hearings. I’m the Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I think it’s appropriate if we hold hearings, or some other committees might want to hold some hearings. You know, in the House, we’ve had all kinds of hearings about Benghazi, about Planned Parenthood, about Hillary Clinton’s emails. I certainly think that the House ought to do hearings involving this very, very serious breach.”

…

“This is the Russian government, Mr. Putin, who invaded Crimea, who invaded Ukraine, who is invading Syria and killing people, who wishes us harm, who is our adversary, trying to influence the U.S. election. This is very, very serious. And Senator McConnell is right. This needs to be done on a bipartisan basis from the point of view that we don’t want an enemy of the United States having access to sensitive material that can influence the U.S. election. I think both Democrats and Republicans should want to do this.”

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