BRUSSELS _ President Donald Trump should discuss Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the U.S. election in November in an effort to fill intelligence gaps, Sen. John McCain said Saturday.
"I would very much like to see the president address this issue including the issue we continue to wrestle with that is the Russian interference in the last election," McCain, R-Ariz., said at a German Marshall Fund forum in Brussels. "There are a lot of answers that are required."
FBI Director James Comey told the House intelligence committee this week that the bureau is probing Russian efforts to "interfere" in the Nov. 8 election, as well as potential ties between Trump's associates and Moscow during the campaign. The president's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired for making misleading statements about contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak a few weeks before the inauguration.
McCain, who called for a select committee to investigate the meddling, pointed out that the Russians are trying to influence the French election, which has its first round of voting next month. The senator also said that Moscow was increasing aggression in Ukraine, which would need aid from the U.S.
"Putin has stepped up his aggression in Ukraine, Ukrainians are dying. and we need to give them weapons with which to defend themselves," McCain said.
He also highlighted the importance of the U.S. increasing its cybersecurity and the threat posed by North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
"North Korean efforts on acquiring weapons is maybe the most immediate crisis that we face," said McCain, who advised telling China to control the country's behavior. "It isn't in China's interest to see a nuclear weapons confrontation that can put the world on edge."
"The aberrational behavior of this fat kid in Pyongyang is not something that we could find to be in any way rational or trustworthy," McCain said.
