“If Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should have done,” Franks says.
Far right conservative Republican Congressman Trent Franks just praised the very Russian hackers whose work just led President Barack Obama to announce sanctions against the Russian government, including shuttering two huge Russian compounds and the expulsion of 35 Russian operatives and diplomats.
“Most of what we’re talking about is based on leaks,” Franks, a Tea Party member, told MSNBC Thursday afternoon, apparently referring to the emails and other documents released by Wikileaks that were dripped out daily to the media. Those emails were hacked by the Russians from the Democratic National Committee’s servers and from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account.
“If anything, whatever they might have done was to try to use information in a way that may have affected something that they believed was in their best interests,” Franks added.
“If Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should have done,†he concluded.
In fact, many believe some of the emails were doctored and should not be accepted as factual on their face.
It is stunning that a sitting U.S. Congressman who sits on the Judiciary Committee would advocate for the hacking of a political party’s servers, or a top political operative’s emails.
In response, on Twitter, some denounced the Republican congressman from Arizona, who has frequently been named as a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court by conservatives. Others appropriately asked him for his email password: